Class 




Book Jfc %L 



Copyright N°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



<Gh 



e 



£mpire of the West 



(A COMPILATION) 



By JOHN BRENT 



y\ 



ISSUED BY 

PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA 






Copyrighted for 

Union Pacific Railroad Company 

by 

E. L. LOMAX, G. P. A., 

Omaha, Neb. 

1910. 



I C 4 



€ CI. A 



268591 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. BUYING A WILDERNESS 

2. THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

3. NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

4. CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 

5. WYOMING VISTAS 

6. OUR PLAYGROUNDS 

7. SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

8. OGDEN CANON 

9. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

10. FOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS 

11. A BIT OF WESTERN MAGIC 

12. SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

13. THE EMPIRE BUILDER 

14. DRIVING THE GOLDEN SPIKE 

15. THE COLUMBIA RIVER 

16. APPLE LAND 

17. CRATER LAKE 

18. ON THE HEIGHTS 

19. AN INLAND VOYAGE 

20. YOSEMITE, THE ENCHANTED VALLEY 

21. THE BIG TREES 

22. LAKE TAHOE 

23. PROGRESS OF CITIES 

24. SAFETY, SERVICE, SPEED 

25. A CHARMING ILLUSTRATION 



Westward 



"I hear the tread of pioneers, 
Of nations yet to be; 
The first low wash of waves, where soon 
Shall roll a human sea. 

"The rudiments of empire here 
Are plastic yet and warm : 
The chaos of a mighty world 
Is rounding into form! 

"Each rude and jostling fragment soon 
Its fitting place shall find. 
The raw material of a state, 
Its muscle and its mind ! 

"And, westering still, the star which leads 
The New World in its train 
Has tipped with fire the icy spears 
Of many a mountain chain." 



BUYING A WILDERNESS 

The man who administered the oath of office 
to the first President of the United States was 
destined a few years later to render a still more 
illustrious service to his country. 

The charm still lingers on this old page of our 
history, weighted as it was with such immeasurable 
consequences not realized by our forefathers. 
Every school-boy knows the story of Mr. Living- 
ston's appointment as American minister to 
France; of his instructions from President Jef- 
ferson to purchase the Island of Orleans for a 
dockyard and depository; and of the ministers 
amazement when Marbois, the French Treasury 
minister, offered to sell him, not an island, but a 
domain of imperial extent, the heart of the con- 
tinent, reaching from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
English possessions on the north. 

The President had been authorized to expend 
$2,000,000, but this proposal called for $15,000,- 
000. Mr. Monroe was sent over as an associate 
of the minister, but Mr. Livingston had assumed 
the responsibility before Mr. Monroes arrival 
and had practically accepted the proposed terms, 
as there was no time for delay. Both ministers, 
on April 30, 1803, concluded a treaty, whereby 
France ceded to the United States the vast terri- 
tory known as Louisiana, "forever and in full 
sovereignty.'' 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Then the storm broke. The purchase, undeni- 
ably, was somewhat revolutionary, thoroughly 
unconstitutional as affecting future membership 
in the Union, and as menacing the rights of 
the original parties to the Federal contract. Mr. 
Jefferson, himself a strict constructionist, did not 
consider it a constitutional act; "the executive, 
he said, "has done an act beyond the constitu- 
tion; the legislature must ratify it and throw them- 
selves upon the country for an act of indemnity.' 
The Senate ratified the treaty and conventions, 
and on December 20, 1803, the Territory of 
Louisiana passed to the United States. 

Our most interesting notes, aside from the 
question of the legality of this acquisition, relate 
the arguments brought forward by the opponents 
to the purchase. "Some were worried lest the 
East should become depopulated; lest a great 
immigration should set in; lest old men and young 
men, abandoning homes and occupations, should 
cross the Mississippi, and, perhaps, found there a 
republic of their own. Some feared that mere 
extent of territory would rend the republic apart; 
that no common ties of interest could ever bind 
together under one government men who fought 
Indians and trapped bears around the headwaters 
of the Missouri and men who built ships and 
caught fish in the harbors of the Atlantic Ocean." 
And then the purchase would enormously increase 
the public debt. Two millions for an island and 
possibly as much ground on the mainland as is 



BUYING A WILDERNESS 



now covered by the city of New Orleans was 
enough, in all conscience, but $15,000,000 for a 
"wilderness" containing over one million square 
miles was revolutionary, unconstitutional, and not 
to be permitted. Even Mr. Livingston bent to the 
storm he had raised, by pleading that we could sell 
a part of the tract if we could not use it. 

But few of the men of 1803 really understood 
the vast importance of the Louisiana Purchase, in 
its relation to the development of American 
nationality. That which now makes the crowning 
pride of the American citizen, that the States of 
the Union are spread from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, was held then by many patriots as the 
extreme of danger. Though the Lewis and Clark 
expedition of 1804 and succeeding years gave the 
first accurate information regarding the basins of 
the Missouri and the Columbia, thus throwing a 
flood of light upon the then unknown part of 
our newly-acquired territory, still the opposers 
of expansion remained unconvinced. As late as 
1825 this feeling was still strong. Besides the 
immense area on this side of the Stony (Rocky) 
Mountains, contained in this purchase, there were 
also the lands lying beyond, which now constitute 
the States of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; and 
in 1824-5 a strong effort was made in Congress to 
secure this territory against the conflicting claims 
of Great Britain. Mr. Smyth of Virginia declared 
in the House that "the limits of the federation 
could not be safely extended beyond the Stony 



7 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



Mountains; he would not object to one or two 
tiers of States beyond the Mississippi, but no 
farther." In the Senate Mr. Dickerson of New 
Jersey pronounced the bill absurd. "A member 
of Congress," he said, "traveling from his home to 
Washington and return, would cover a distance of 
9,200 miles; at the rate of thirty miles per day, and 
allowing him forty-four days for Sundays, three 
hundred and fifty days would be consumed, and 
the member would have fourteen days in Washing- 
ton before he started home; it would be quicker 
to come around Cape Horn or by Behring Straits, 
Baffin Bay, and Davis Strait to the Atlantic, and 
so to Washington. True, the passage is not yet 
discovered, except upon our maps, but it will be 
as soon as Oregon is made a State." Mr. Dick- 
erson's geographical eloquence was so effective 
that the bill, on his motion, was tabled. 

So much stress upon the old story, because 
this is the stone almost rejected by the builders, 

Prophesies of evil grew with the years. Morse, 
in his "Universal Geography," declared, "All set- 
tlers who go beyond the Mississippi River will be 
lost forever to the United States." Pike, whose 
name is attached to the giant peak which was to 
serve as a magnet to draw adventurous spirits 
from the East across the plains, a region con- 
demned by him to everlasting sterility, made 
official report to the War Department: "From 
these immense prairies may be derived one great 
advantage to the United States, namely, the 

8 



BUYING A WILDERNESS 



restriction of our population to some certain 
limits, and thereby a continuation of the Union. 
They will be constrained to limit themselves to 
the borders of the Missouri and the Mississippi, 
while they leave the prairies, incapable of cultiva- 
tion, to the wandering and uncivilized aborigines 
of the country." 

Even as late as 1858 the North American Review 
declared: 'The people of the United States have 
reached their inland western frontier, and the 
banks of the Missouri River are the shores at 
the termination of a vast ocean desert, over one 
thousand miles in breadth, which it is proposed 
to travel, if it all, with caravans of camels, and 
which interpose a final barrier to the establishment 
of large communities, agricultural, commercial, or 
even pastoral." 

These were the prophesies. What of their ful- 
fillment ? The War of the Rebellion, with all its 
sacrifice of life, shedding of blood and expendi- 
ture of treasure, was not an unmixed evil. Rank- 
ing close to its prime results, the extinction of 
human slavery and the homogeneity of the 
republic, came that great factor in the unification 
of the nation, the building of the Union and 
Central Pacific railways. The "caravan of the 
camel," predicted in 1858, became in realization 
the express train in 1868. 

In 1860 there were 2,100 miles of railway west 
of the Mississippi River and only twenty-six and 
one-half miles west of the Missouri. The railway 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

mileage west of the Mississippi now exceeds 95,000 
miles. West of the Mississippi have been founded 
some of the most important centers of population 
and commerce in the United States. At the mouth 
of the Mississippi we have New Orleans, the com- 
mercial emporium of the Gulf States. In the center 
is St. Louis, among the most prosperous of 
American cities, reaching out clear to the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Gulf of California with its jobbing 
trade and manufacturing enterprises. Up near the 
headwaters of the Mississippi are St. Paul and 
Minneapolis, the greatest milling and lumber 
centers in America. On the Gulf of Mexico lies 
Galveston and near the Rio Grande is San An- 
tonio, both with growing international trade. In the 
heart of the corn belt are Kansas City, St. Joseph, 
Omaha, Sioux City, Topeka, Des Moines, Lincoln, 
and Council Bluffs. Near the crest of the Rockies 
is Denver, the beautiful, and south of the Colorado 
capital are Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Santa Fe, and 
Albuquerque. Beyond the Wahsatch Range, Salt 
Lake City, the famous capital of Utah, challenges 
attention, and points the way to the golden shores 
of the Pacific, of which San Francisco is the com- 
mercial metropolis, with Los Angeles holding a 
profitable monopoly of the semi-tropical fruit trade, 
which has assumed enormous proportions Then 
come Portland, "where flows the Oregon," and 
Tacoma and Seattle, contesting the supremacy of 
the vast commerce of Puget Sound. Other impor- 
tant and growing commercial centers have been 

10 



BUYING A WILDERNESS 



established in the mountain States. Notable 
among these are Boise, Spokane, Butte, Helena, 
Ogden, Laramie, Cheyenne, and Deadwood. 

When we took possession in December, 1803, 
the eastern boundary was the Mississippi River 
from its source to the thirty-first parallel; but where 
that source was nobody knew, and the boundary 
below 31 degrees was long in dispute. Americans 
claimed as far eastward as the Perdido River; but 
Spain would acknowledge no claim east of the 
Mississippi and south of the thirty-first parallel 
save the Island of Orleans. The boundary on the 
southeast was never definitely drawn until the treaty 
of 1819, when we secured Florida at the cost of 

$5,000,000. 

By the convention of 1818 with Great Britain, 
the utmost northern boundary of Louisiana was to 
begin "at the most northwestern point of the Lake 
of the Woods, run due north or south, as the case 
might be, to the forty-ninth parallel of north 
latitude and westward along that parallel to the 
summit of the Stony Mountains." The region 
beyond (now Idaho, Washington, and Oregon) was 
claimed by both parties. From this time for nearly 
thirty years the "struggle for possession" alternately 
waxed and waned until heroic Dr. Whitman made 
his immortal ride of 4,000 miles in midwinter and 
saved Oregon to the Union. This was in 1843, 
and by the treaty of 1846 the matter was peace- 
fully settled. We are apt to congratulate our- 
selves on peaceful victories; and often they are 

ii 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

cheaply won in every sense. If the old war-cry of 
"Fifty-four, forty, or fight" had stood in 1846 for 
anything we meant to stand by — in effect, fighting, 
and not temporizing — we should today be in con- 
trol of a coast line connecting us with Alaska, and 
masters of a country wherein could arise no 
complications. 

A glance at the map will show the extent of 
territory acquired by this purchase. Out of it have 
been carved nine whole States. The States, and 
parts of States, included in the purchase were as 
follows and their population in 1909 is shown: 

Louisiana 1,713,000 

Arkansas 1,750,000 

Missouri 3,750,000 

Kansas 1,800,000 

Nebraska 1,500,000 

Iowa 2,500,000 

North Dakota 600,000 

South Dakota 575,000 

Montana 410,000 

Wyoming 130,000 

Minnesota 2,000,000 

Colorado 800,000 

17,528,000 

If we include, 

Utah 350,000 

Idaho 350,000 

Oregon 725,000 

Washington 1,250,000 

California 2,150,000 

4,825,000 

we have 22,353,000 as the population covering 
the Louisiana Purchase. Suppose we take in 

12 



BUYING A WILDERNESS 



all the territory west of the Mississippi River, how- 
soever acquired, including Alaska, and we find the 
population to be: 

Oklahoma 1,490,000 

Texas 4,745,000 

New Mexico 450,000 

Arizona 200,000 

Nevada 100,000 

Alaska (whites) 35,000 

7,020,000 

Add this to the States already enumerated and 
it will be seen that the Empire of the West, in its 
full extent, shows a population in 1909 of 29,373,- 
000 as against the assumed figures of 90,000,000 
for the census of 1910, for the United States — nearly 
one-third of our entire population. 

Interesting and very profitable is a study of 
the rise and progress of these States, this great 
domain we call the trans-Mississippi country. It 
will do no harm, and possibly much good, for us to 
review our history — too often neglected both in 
public and private education. Surely nothing 
becomes an American, young or old, more than an 
accurate, thorough, intelligent knowledge of his 
country, not in narrow sections, but with a view 
as broad as the land in which he lives. A doubt 
arises whether a Nebraska youth knows much 
about Kentucky with her years of fascinating his- 
tory, and this doubt becomes intensified when we 
consider whether a Massachusetts lad has a clear, 
practical view regarding the State of Nebraska. 
There is some danger of State insularity. 

13 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

While this is, perhaps, natural, still it would 
seem we should be loyal to our ideals, and to the 
country and the flag which mean so much to us all. 
The numerous expositions and conventions ought 
to and have brought together an immense number 
of our own people, and out of this commingling and 
fraternizing should come a better understanding 
of each other's resources, broader views of the 
underlying strength of States and communities, 
and a correspondingly increased pride in birth- 
right and country — the whole country — this United 
States of ours, North and South, East and West. 
Coming to these gatherings our older brothers and 
sisters have seen those evidences of culture which 
they may have deemed well-nigh absent from this 
region. The progress in music, literature and art 
has kept pace with all material advancement. 

There was, practically, no boundary defined by 
either of the parties to the sale when we purchased 
the heart of the continent. May not we take it as 
a happy omen? For there has been no boundary 
or limit as yet to progress in many-sided advance- 
ment during these one hundred and seven years. 
The most fantastic dreamer of them all could not 
have foreseen in those dawning days of the century 
how his children and his children's children would 
people and develop the wilderness which we 
bought from France. 



14 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

'For he must blaze a nations ways, with hatchet and with brand, 
Till on his last-won wilderness an empire's bulwarks stand." 

That particular part of the "Great American 
Desert" through which we will journey lies immedi- 
ately west of Omaha and Kansas City, extending 
beyond the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. 
The trip will be mainly over the section of country 
traversed by the Union Pacific and allied lines of the 
Harriman System. This will comprise the States of 
Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, 
Oregon, Washington, California, and a glimpse of 
Montana, for these are the imperial domains once 
placarded as unfit for human habitation. 

'What do you want of that vast and worthless 
area" — it is Daniel Webster addressing the Senate 
in 1843 — "that region of savages and wild beasts, 
of deserts, of shifting sands and whirling wind, of 
dust, of cactus and prairie-dogs? To what use 
could we ever hope to put those great deserts and 
those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and 
covered to their very base with eternal snow? 
What can we ever do with the western coast, a 
coast of 3,000 miles, rock bound, cheerless and 
uninviting?" 

Sixty-six years after, these States, if called on, 
can answer roll call, and give good and sufficient 
reasons for being in existence. Let us call them! 

i5 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

NEBRASKA 

For the purposes of taxation, the real and 
personal property owned in this original part of 
the American Desert is valued at $600,000,000, 
and as this is scaled at one-fifth value, this barren 
tract is worth $3,000,000,000. Our improved lands 
are worth $145,000,000; unimproved, $190,000,- 
000. In 1909 we raised: Of oats, 61,825,000 
bushels, valued at $21,630,000; of wheat, 51,650,- 
000 bushels, valued at $44,185,000; and of corn, 
194,000,000 bushels, valued at $97,030,000. In 
cereals alone, that is corn, winter and spring wheat, 
oats, barley, and rye, we produced 309,495,000 
bushels, valued at $165,797,000; of potatoes, 
8,190,000 bushels, valued at $4,914,000; and of 
hay 2,325,000 tons, valued at $1 3,650,000— a 
total of $184,661,000. We rank third among the 
corn-producing States; Omaha is first as a wool 
and butter market, and we have the most wealth 
per capita of any State in the Union. In our 
western borders where irrigation is necessary we 
have obtained magnificent results. 

KANSAS 

In 1908 we had 6,900,000 acres of wheat, 
which produced 7 7,000,000 bushels, valued at 
$63,600,000; of corn we had 7,000,000 acres, 
which yielded 1 5 1,000,000 bushels, worth $82,640,- 
000. The total value of our farm products and 
live stock was $47 5,244,000. For ten years 

16 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



past we have averaged per year 57,600 bushels 
of wheat; 153,456,000 bushels of corn; 2,155,000 
bushels of rye, and 27,580 bushels of oats. In 
1889 we raised from 6,820,000 acres, 273,888,000 
bushels of corn. We made, in 1908, 42,205,000 
pounds of butter for which we received $9,41 3,000, 
and in 1907 we sold $10,300,000 worth of poultry; 
the record for 1908 was $9,300,000. The value of 
horses, mules, cows, Other cattle, sheep, and swine 
in the State amounts to $197,500,000. The milch 
cows alone number 687,432 and are valued at 
$21,310,000. We have 1,653 manufacturing estab- 
lishments, with $126,000,000 invested capital and 
the value of their output is $2 34,000,000, annually. 
There are 10,250 miles of railroad in the State. 
Irrigation has been our good angel. 

COLORADO 

In the fifty years of our existence we have 
taken from our mines of gold, silver, lead, and 
copper over one billion dollars, and yet, as a 
farming State, we are independent of our mineral 
production. Our output for 1909 was $27,000,000 
in gold and $13,000,000 more in other metals, and 
the value of our farm products — corn, wheat, 
oats, etc., — was $41,000,000, while the combined 
value of farm products — live stock, wool, hay, 
etc.— was $147,000,000. We have 2,500,000 
acres of irrigated lands, 30,000 miles of ditches and 
laterals which cost us $36,000,000. We produced 
$7,500,000 in fruits, and $12,500,000 in beet 

i7 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

sugar last year. In ten years, from 1900 to 1909, 
we raised 7,800,000 tons of sugar beets, for 
which the farmers received $46,000,000 and the 
factory laborers, $15,000,000; the value of the 
sugar product was $87,000,000. There are 648 
manufacturing industries in this State, employing 
38,335 men and the value of the output was 
$93,600,000; manufactured wheat flour amounted 
to $24,000,000, and we raised 11,200,000 bushels 
of potatoes. We have 598 reservoirs which cost 
$63,000,000 having a capacity of 106,000,000,- 
000 barrels of water; 10,736,000 tons of coal were 
mined and sold for $21,472,000; our dairy product 
sold for $31,000,000, and the hay crop was worth 
$17,600,000; live stock in the State, 4,100,000 
head, valued at $7 5,200,000, and for live stock 
exported we received $42,200,000; mine dividends 
paid for the year $11,000,000. Irrigation made all 
this possible. 

WYOMING 

Seamed as we are with coal veins and saturated 
with oil, still our agricultural products amounted 
in 1909 to $25,000,000, while our 6,500,000 tons 
of coal brought $21,000,000. We have 800,000 
cattle in the State and we shipped 40,000,000 
pounds of wool worth $8,500,000. We sold 1,000,- 
000 sheep for $4,500,000; exported 275,000 cattle 
which sold for $8,500,000; horses, 25,000 which 
brought $500,000; and our mines of gold, copper, 
and iron yielded $2,000,000. Our irrigation 

18 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



propositions, projected and completed, represent 
an outlay of $50,000,000. Irrigation has been our 
strongest friend and helper. 

UTAH 

Oldest of the desert pioneers. We accepted 
the "desert" as we found it and made it a garden 
spot. Our mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, 
and coal in 1909 produced $28,133,000 and paid 
the stockholders in dividends $7,104,000. We 
raised 439,000 tons of sugar beets, which pro- 
duced 99,500,000 pounds of sugar, valued at 
$4,478,000; the wool clip brought $4,000,000; we 
produced 2,000,000 pounds of honey; our canning 
factories packed of fruits and vegetables 530,000 
cases; there are 77,606 horses and mules in the 
State, valued at $3,322,000; of cattle, 215,151, 
valued at $3,502,000; of sheep, 1,408,248, valued 
at $4,103,000, and our assessed valuation is 
$173,000,000. Irrigation has made all things pos- 
sible for us. 

IDAHO 

Out of $90,000,000 value in products for 1909 
but $25,000,000 came from our mines. We 
shipped 28,000,000 pounds of wool and there are 
3,500,000 sheep in the State. Our timber district 
comprises 25,000 square miles of trees containing 
60,000,000,000 feet of lumber; our live stock is 
valued at $10,000,000; we have 25,000,000 in- 
vested in manufactures; there are 5,000,000 acres 

i9 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

of land under cultivation and irrigation; we pro- 
duced 40,000,000 pounds of beet sugar worth 
$1,800,000; lumber cut 400,000,000 feet valued at 
$7,500,000; our crops of wheat, oats, fruits, hay, 
gardens, butter, and eggs, sold for $53,000,000. 
We rank third as a sheep and wool producing 
State. 

MONTANA 

Although hidden in the mountains we stand first 
in some things, ranking all the States in sheep pro- 
duction, of which there are 4,585,000 in the State, 
and our wool product for 1909 was 35,000,000 
pounds, valued at $7,000,000; our copper mines 
yielded $46,000,000; silver, $8,500,000; gold, 
$4,000,000; and lead, $2, 500,000; there are 530,000 
range cattle in the State, and we exported 245,000 
head, valued at $10,000,000. In farm products, 
we raised 11,700,000 bushels of oats, averaging 49 
bushels per acre; 4,000,000 bushels of spring wheat, 
averaging 29 bushels per acre; we have the highest 
yield per acre in cereals of any State in the Union. 

OREGON 

Half of the world comes to us for lumber. We cut 
2,000,000,000 feet, valuedat $30,000,000, in 1908, 
and a large proportion of this output went to the 
Orient, Europe, and Australia. We have on hand 
40,000 square miles of timber; this measures about 
300,000,000,000 feet of merchantable lumber, 
a supply for over a hundred years, and the value of 

20 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

this standing timber at the present commercial rate 
is $3,620,000,000. Copenhagen and Hamburg, 
London and Cape Town come to us for lumber. 
Our wheat and flour realized $25,000,000; dairy, 
$17,200,000; fruit, $6,000,000; eggs, $3,000,000; 
wool, 20,450,000 pounds, value $4,000,000; live 
stock, $10,000,000; salmon industry, $4,000,000; 
hops, $2,000,000; potatoes, $3,000,000; white 
paper mills, $3,000,000; mines, $3,000,000. Our 
seaport town of Portland has a jobbing trade of 
$12 5,000,000, and although one hundred miles from 
the mouth of the Columbia, the heaviest laden ships 
of commerce lie along its wharves. We shipped 
from this port in 1909 for foreign export; 
Wheat, 5,442,626 bushels, valued at $5,217,323; 
flour, 365,726 barrels, valued at' $1 ,530,495; and 
lumber, 85,952,510 feet, valued at $971,913; our 
coastwise trade in the same commodities were; 
Wheat, 4,235,952 bushels, valued at $4,512,530; 
flour, 262,148 barrels, valued at $1,435,533; and 
lumber, 95,549,700 feet, valued at $1,223,533. 

WASHINGTON 

We are a part of that "rocky and desolate 
coast," and one of the stones almost rejected of 
the builders. We produced, in 1909: Wheat 
35,095,000 bushels, valued at $34,000,000; other 
grains, 14,580,000 bushels, valued at $10,250,000; 
hay and forage product, valued at $18,250,000; fruit 
yield, $17,500,000; dairy and poultry output, 
$15,000,000; aggregate value farm products, $110,- 

21 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

450,000; lumber cut, 4,000,000,000 feet, valued at 
$50,000,000; shingle output, 7,000,000,000 feet, 
valued at $14,000,000; total lumber, shingle, and 
wood manufacturers, $105,000,000; salmon pack, 
1,400,000 cases, valued at $8,250,000; total fish- 
eries product, $11,000,000; coal mined, 3,700,000 
tons, valued at $12,250,000; farm, forest, fish, and 
mine products, $2 51,450,000; flour manufacture, 
3,650,000 barrels, valued at $15,000,000; lumber 
exports, foreign, 188,692,000 feet; lumber ship- 
ments, coastwise, 850,000,000 feet; rail shipments, 
east, 1,200,000,000 feet; shingle shipments, by rail, 
5,500,000,000; cars lumber and shingles shipped, 
100,000; flour exports, 1,122,717 barrels, valued at 
$4,593,144; foreign wheat shipments, 4,488,144 
bushels; foreign exports, 1909, $26,507,736; direct 
foreign imports, $28,341,875; foreign commerce, in 

1909, $54,849,611; in 1899, $23,644,278; total 

assessed property valuation, $790,419,826; cotton 
exports, 66,968 bales, valued at $3,891,637; salmon 
exports, $2,103,643; exports to Alaska, $14,099,- 
383; standing timber in the State, 195,000,000,000 
feet. 

CALIFORNIA 

Not "serene, indifferent to fate," are we of the 
Golden State, but, tried by disaster, we have won 
by hard work. In our broad valleys we produced 
in 1909; Of wheat, 11,550,000 bushels; barley, 
31,270,000 bushels; corn, 1,750,000 bushels; oats, 
6,280,000 bushels; beet sugar, 1 85,000,000 pounds; 

22 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



butter, 48,468,000 pounds; cheese, 6,162,000 
pounds; beans, 202,400,000 pounds; hops, 13,875,- 
000 pounds; wool, 15,000,000 pounds; honey, 
6,250,000 pounds; oranges and lemons, 40,500 
cars; fresh fruits, apricots, cherries, figs, apples, etc., 
15,280 car loads; raisins, 140,000,000 pounds; 
prunes, 150,000,000 pounds; dried fruits, peaches, 
apricots, figs, apples, etc., 88,250,000 pounds; 
almonds and walnuts, 11,000 tons; assessed valua- 
tion of the State, $2,300,000,000. We are first 
in petroleum production, 48,306,000 barrels, 
valued at $25,240,000; gold, $20,000,000; from 
1887 to 1897, inclusive, our mines yielded $608,1 73,- 
000— of this sum $321,1 38,000 was gold. 

ALASKA 

Farthest outpost on the mainland of our con- 
tinent under the American flag, we were, perhaps, 
the least welcome of any of the territory acquired 
since the Louisiana Purchase. But, even as a bad 
bargain, we have in the past thirty years alone 
returned on our original cost of $7,200,000 a total 
in wealth production of over $300,000,000, The 
annual value of canned salmon is over $10,000,000, 
and in recent times our yearly gold output has been 
$22,000,000. Here in this wilderness we have 
nearly 400 miles of railroad and our resources in 
minerals and timber are almost beyond estimate. 
In twenty-nine years, from 1880 to 1908, our min- 
eral production was $148,000,000 and of this sum 

2 3 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



$142,000,000 was gold, and the remainder comprised 
silver, copper, tin, coal, and marble. 

And this is the answer of the "desert" to the 
prophets and its message to the world today. 

STRIKING COMPARISONS 

Statistical students, and it maybe those also who 
do not care for the "eloquence of figures," will be 
surprised at some of the results obtained by com- 
parative analysis. And first it will be noted that 
in every gold-bearing State agriculture has long 
since outstripped the mine product. Colorado 
would continue to be a farmer's paradise if every 
mine within her borders suspended operations, 
for her mining product for the year realized 
$42,000,000, while her farm produce and live 
stock brought in nearly $150,000,000. "Soil as 
the basis of all wealth" is, of course, axiomatic; 
but the absolute value of this heritage few of us 
understand. Take a handful of 1908 figures; this 
was an average prosperous year in the Western 
Empire: 

The total gold and silver output for the country 
for 1908 was $122,600,000; the Nebraska corn and 
hay crop was worth $130,300,000. The value of 
live stock in that year was $1 39,000,000. The cop- 
per production for the country was $124,419,000, 
more than gold and silver combined; Nebraska's 
corn and wheat that year were valued at $1 26,565,- 
000. Iron ore production was $81,845,000, nearly 
$7,500,000 less than the value of the Nebraska 

24 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

corn crop which was valued at $89,300,000. 
The lead and zinc production of the whole country 
is just equaled by the hay and spring wheat crop 
of Nebraska— value $44,000,000. All building 
materials produced in the United States, aggregat- 
ing $305,850,000, fall short by $46,600,000 of 

equaling Nebraska's grain crop and live stock for 
that year. The salt product was nearly 29,000,- 
000 barrels, worth $7,550,000; Nebraska's alfalfa 
crop was worth $15,000,000. 

POPULATION 

The growth in population is not the least among 
the wonders of the Western Empire. The table 
on page 27 shows in condensed form the advance 
from 1850 to date. 

It is interesting to note that in 1850 there were 
117,000 people on this million-square-miles tract, 
and that this population was located in but three 
of the ten States as we now know them. There 
were 92,000 in California, drawn thither by the 
lure of gold; the Mormon exodus to Utah accounted 
for 11,000 more; and the country opened up by the 
fur traders in Oregon as far back as 1811, and which 
received a new impetus in 1843 from heroic Mar- 
cus Whitman and his devoted band, could muster 
but 13,000. Those who obeyed the magnetic 
force of Californian gold sands outnumbered four 
to one all the missionaries and real pioneers and 
the adventurers of the far north. If the claims of 
these States for population in 1909 are verified by 

25 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

the census of 1910, one more bewildering fact will 
be added to the long extended surprise list of the 
Western Empire. For, if the estimates are correct, 
there are nearly 9,500,000 people living on this 
tract which was a desert with 117,000 inhabitants 
sixty years ago. 




Harvesting Sugar Beets, South Platte Valley, Colorado 



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In the Platte Canon, Colorado 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

Colorado is a word of Spanish origin, and means 
"red" or "colored,'' in allusion, probably, to the 
ruddy-colored sandstone prevalent in the State. 
Colorado has inspired as much sentiment as any of 
the older States, and Pike's Peak stands in poem, 
picture, and romance the same as Plymouth Rock. 
And there is, after all, fair reason for this. The 
story of the gold camp, with its dramatic move- 
ment, tragic tints of color, and episodes of humor 
and pathos, makes strong material for history; and 
the narrative of the struggles and triumphs of 
those pioneers, who sat down before these tower- 
ing mountain walls to build a State, is beyond 
romance, and partakes of the heroic. 

This grand young commonwealth is also called 
the Centennial State, having been admitted to the 
Union, August 1, 1876. 

EARLY ARISTOCRACY 

Traces of the real early settlers, the blue- 
blooded aristocracy of away back, are found 
today in southwestern Colorado. They were "cliff- 
dwellers," and on the Rio Mancos their houses 
may still be seen. It is the opinion of many 
learned gentlemen that they were the descendents 
of the ancient Aztecs-but it doesn't matter — they 



29 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

were the first settlers, beyond any sort of doubt, 
and that honor remains solid with them. They 
were a fairly agreeable people, according to their 
lights, somewhat given to living in contracted 
quarters and to having controversies in which stone 
knives were used; but they gave way in time to 
the Mexican borderers, leaving no recorded history 
save these mute, swallow-like homes. The Mexi- 
can came to stay; he is there yet, in pretty strong 
array in the southern counties, and as far north as 
Pueblo. Old Mexican land grants still cover some 
of the richest land in southern Colorado. 

CORONADO 

Sefior Francisco Coronado, a Spanish hidalgo, 
headed an expedition into this country in 1540-42. 
Like all dreamers of his day — those real knights 
of conquest and adventure — he believed the coun- 
try to be filled with gold. He records that he 
explored thoroughly, but found none. It is proba- 
ble that Senor Coronado was not so keen a gold- 
seeker as is the average prospector of today, for 
he must have trodden on millions of the precious 
metal in his wanderings. There is a long "time 
gulf," as the voice of the old Spanish explorer dies 
away; the Spaniards and the Indians possessed 
the country, and traded and intermarried, and 
swindled each other, in a genial way, with great 
mutual satisfaction. 

30 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

ZEBULON PIKE 

There do not appear to have been any explor- 
ing expeditions or other invaders for a long time, 
and the people had a rest for a matter of 250 
years. Colorado, you will remember, was a part 
of the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803; and, in the 
autumn of 1806, Captain Zebulon Pike was explor- 
ing the valleys of the Arkansas. Coming north, 
his attention, day by day, was attracted toward a 
great peak, which seemed to beckon. So he came 
into these gorgeous passes and tried, in an amateur- 
ish sort of way, to get to the top of the mountain. 
In his account of his travels, which was published 
in 1810, is recorded the story of his attempt, which 
failed most ingloriously. He never ascended that 
lofty height, but, in the pathetic language of the 
present, "he got there just the same," by giving his 
name to the mountain; hence it is Pike's Peak even 
unto this day. This bad example has found base 
imitators up to the present, for there be tourists 
who will stoutly aver that they have been there 
also and witnessed the sun rise. 

Captain Pike deposes, concisely, as follows: 
'We commenced ascending; found it very difficult, 
being obliged to climb up rocks, sometimes almost 
perpendicular; and, after marching almost all day, 
we camped in a cave, without blankets, victuals, or 
water. We had a fine, clear sky, whilst it was 
snowing at the bottom. Some distance up we 
found buffalo; higher still a new species of deer, 
and pheasants. On arriving at the summit of the 

3 1 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

chain, we found the snow middle deep; no sign of 
bird or beast inhabiting this region. The summit 
of the grand peak, which was entirely bare of 
vegetation and covered with snow, now appeared 
to the distance of fifteen or sixteen miles from us, 
and as high again as what we had ascended, and 
would have taken a whole day's march to arrive at 
its base, when I believe no human being could 
have ascended to its pinnacle.'' The truth is that 
the gallant officer had taken the wrong trail, and 
emerged on a mountain spur fifteen miles distant 
from the peak proper. 

LONG AND FREMONT 

Colonel S. H. Long next visited Colorado in 
1820, named a peak after himself, and went away. 
He did not climb his mountain, either. 

General John C. Fremont ("Pathfinder") came 
along in 1843, and the report of his explorations 
first awakened public interest in the Territory. 
Although Pike, Long, and Fremont bore testimony 
to the great mineral wealth of the country, they 
did not report the discovery of precious metals. 
The next year Fremont's expedition returned from 
California by another route and thoroughly explored 
North, Middle, and South Parks, reporting many 
interesting observations. The only result of these 
reports seems to have been the importation of a 
few French and half-breed fur-traders, who settled 
down and grew up with the country and the 
Indians. 

3 2 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

GOLD 

After the close of the Mexican War, the country 
began to be settled by white men, retired army 
officers, and the like, and matters ran along, in an 
uneventful way, until George A. Jackson stumbled 
upon the shining golden sand in the bed of Clear 
Creek (now Idaho Springs), on the 7th day of 
January, 1859. 

On May 7, 1909, a multitude of people, com- 
prising the foremost citizens of Colorado, gathered 
at Idaho Springs for the purpose of dedicating a 
monument to the old prospector whom ex-Governor 
Adams aptly termed the "founder of the common- 
wealth." The structure consists of a granite base 
surmounted by a huge boulder of native rock, and 
upcn its face inscribed in bronze are the following 
words: "On this spot was made the first discovery 
of gold in the Rocky Mountains by George A. 
Jackson, January 7, 1859. Placed, May 7, 1909." 

DENVER 

Denver was a trading post almost from the 
first. The town was named in honor of the (then) 
governor of Kansas, General J. W. Denver, of 
Leavenworth. 

The Denver of today is a splendid metropolitan 
city. With Colorado it has grown, keeping pace 
with the advancement of the State, and reflecting 
at all times all that was most energetic, all that was 
most progressive, in its history. From a small 
collection of weather-worn tents, it has grown into 

33 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

a prosperous and beautiful city, with broad streets 
and boulevards, with splendid business blocks and 
elegant houses and a population which aggregates 
200,000. With all the facilities of trade and travel 
which money and enterprise can construct; with all 
the advantages of social, educational and religious 
culture which the spirit of the age can suggest; 
with all the opportunities for the pleasures, 
conveniences, and comforts of life which fortune 
or refinement may desire, and with a future before 
it unrivaled for commercial prosperity or industrial 
renown — this is the Denver of today. 

This is assuredly true in every particular. 
Denver is a peculiarly attractive city socially, and 
its commercial importance is known to all the 
world. It is a grand stopping place for the inva 1: d 
tourist, wherein he may accustom himself to a 
bracing atmosphere before attempting the higher 
elevations, Denver being at the medium altitude 
of 5,182 feet. No matter how warm it may be in 
the day (and the mercury does, occasionally, climb 
to 90 degrees), the nights are unvaryingly cool — a 
blanket being found comfortable in midsummer. 
There are many beautiful walks and drives in and 
around the city, and the tourist can spend a 
delightful week here in this "Queen City of the 
Plains." 

CLEAR CREEK CANON 

In the old days one took the stage up Clear 
Creek; and, although there was a boulder or two 

34 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 



to be met with, and the creek to be crossed every 
few hundred yards, it was considered a good road, 
as roads went in the early sixties in Colorado. Up 
this narrow defile came a steady, continuous pro- 
cession of heavy-laden wagons, with supplies of all 
sorts for the mining towns. It is the one canon 
nearest Denver accessible to the tourist. It is 
15 miles to Golden, across a level stretch of 
country, which does not look much like a "desert,'' 
or a "dry, void tract," but rather suggests some 
cozy valley in the Far East — comfortable farm 
houses, fields of waving grain, shady groves, and 
shining streams of water. 

From the observation car can be seen the smoke 
of young leviathan Denver, behind — as the train 
heads for those towering foothills — the outer sen- 
tinels of the great canon beyond in the mountains. 
The train flashes into Golden — famous as an old 
"camp," and the first capital of the State, now a 
thriving, prosperous place. The town lies on the 
site of an ancient lake; around the base of 
the mountain walls surrounding it may be seen the 
water-marks of prehistoric floods. From here we 
plunge at once into the gorge, and for nearly sixty 
miles follow this picturesque marvel. 

There is nothing like Clear Creek Canon in 
America. It is not exaggeration to say that, for 
wild rugged scenery, Nature in her most majestic 
mood failed to provide its equal, and it can not 
be described. The skilled litterateur may throw 
together masses of gorgeous words, as if to rival 

35 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

the grandeur of those rocky fastnesses, but words 
seem puny and inadequate. And, after many a 
day-dream when one is restored to the quiet of 
home, the effort to place the picture again before 
the fancy is fruitless; there remains a vision of a 
resistless mountain torrent rushing madly down 
a wild chasm, which can be likened only to one of 
those appalling scenes in the 'Inferno;" overhead 
a haunting hands breadth of gleaming sky; the 
grim walls close enough to touch, at times, as you 
flit by; the fantastic shapes carved upon the moun- 
tain, bold profiles and fairy castles; the tranquil 
summer land in which you occasionally dash, when 
the canon widens into a few brief acres, green, 
shady, inviting; a passing glimpse of a dazzling, 
snow-summit, far away in the upper ether — these, 
and more, one may recall and still there remains 
an indefinable sense of something elusive that you 
have not held fast, and can not describe. It is the 
spirit of beauty, the power of pure ennobling 
scenery, which can not be taken away from its 
mountain home or ever be reproduced in words. 

CENTRAL CITY 

At Forks Creek, 29 miles from Denver, a 
branch of the canon shoots off to the right. Here 
a line runs to Central City and Blackhawk, 11 
miles distant. The next point made is the far- 
famed Idaho Springs. Gashed, seamed, and rent 
are the mountains in every direction, but a lovely 
plateau of ten or fifteen acres is left in the valley, 

36 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

ample room for a beautiful town. The grim out- 
line is softened by a view up no less than five 
canons, and the sides of these steep defiles are 
green with mountain pines and shrubs which cling, 
in all sorts of impossible places, to their mountain 
home. 

THE MAN FROM RUSSELL GULCH 

There is a little gulch about three miles from 
Idaho Springs, midway between that town and 
Central City, called Russell Gulch; and gold was 
found there also in 1859. 

But few remain of the many houses which made 
this a great "camp" fifty years ago; Central City, as 
it grew, being a more desirable place of residence. 
Passing through the straggling remnants of the vil- 
lage, one notes, among the last of the structures on 
the left side, a strongly built, uncompromisingly 
ugly log cabin. A sturdy man built it in 1860, and 
worked like a Trojan at mining and at whatever 
his hands could find to do. 

He had the usual ups and downs of a miner s 
life, rich one day and poor the next, but he 
plodded on, saying, "She's got to come;' and 
one day he "struck it." A lucky vein of ore 
turned up for him, and he sold out for $25,000. 
He vanished from Russell Gulch; the cabin still 
stands there by the roadside, solitary and uninhabi- 
ted; a few of the old-timers alone remember the 
man who lived there, but millions of people all over 
the civilized world have heard of George M. Pull- 

37 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



man, and have traveled in his palace cars. He 
was the man who lived in that log cabin in 1860. 

GEORGETOWN 

But push along for Georgetown, 14 miles 
distant, a handsome town, and built as a place of 
permanency and established residence. 

The bright sunshine, the pure atmosphere, the 
mountain breeze, the cool, dewless nights, render 
life in this portion of the Rockies a pleasurable and 
inspiring existence. During the winter the tempera- 
ture is even less severe and more equable than the 
winters of Denver, the city of the finest climate on 
the continent. The snowfall is so light that sleigh- 
ing and winter sports are almost unknown, while 
the winter season by no means interferes with the 
mining industry. 

The railway follows the water level of Clear 
Creek into the heart of the mountains, and, at the 
virtual head of the canon, where Georgetown is 
situated, every part of the range is reached not 
with undue exertion, but with comfort and 
pleasure. 

Perched above Georgetown is the famous 
"Loop," that wonderful piece of engineering skill, 
now world famous. 

Passing above west Clear Creek, with just a 
glimpse of the picturesque bridge that spans 
Devil's Gate, the road runs under the great viaduct, 
and rises and rises until you have left the city 

38 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

hundreds of feet below; and to the north, but with 
a sudden turn, it is again seen, with the train this 
time rushing toward the city and still climbing; 
again a turn to the east; now, ninety feet below is 
the track just passed. 

Away again on the farther side of the mountain; 
again crossing to the west side, suddenly turn- 
ing to the east until the "Big Fill," 76 feet 
high- — too sharp a curve for a bridge — has given 
another circle to the track, then with a turn 
to the west around the slope of Mount McClellan; 
still another view of Georgetown with all the tracks 
in view, each seeming to have no relation to its 
neighbor, until another valley in the mountains 
discloses the pretty village of Silver Plume, the 
close ally and best friend of Georgetown. But 
the "Loop" is a railway on a "bender;" it is the 
apotheosis of gyration, the supreme luxury of 
entanglement — yet all wisely, clearly, skillfully 
planned — a wondrous monument to human genius 
and engineering skill. 



SOME FACTS ABOUT THE FAMOUS "LOOP" 

The "Loop" was built in 1881-82, under the 
direction of Robert Blickensderfer, C. E. The 
high bridge is on a curve, the radius of which is 
319^ feet. The track under the bridge is 8,69 7 
feet above sea level. Elevation of track on bridge 
at point of crossing is 8,772 feet. The track on the 

39 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

bridge is 7 5 feet higher than the track below, and 

is 90 feet higher than the water level in Clear 

Creek under the bridge. 

The gradient, or rise of track, is 185 feet to the 

mile, or 3h feet to the 100 feet. Silver Plume is 

9,176 feet above sea level; Georgetown 8,476 feet. 

Actual distance between the towns by rail, four and 

one-tenth miles; by wagon road only one mile. 

Horseshoe curve, on the Big Fill, has a radius of 

191 feet. Between Denver and Silver Plume, the 

railroad track crosses Clear Creek eighteen times. 

A LIFETIME IN A DAY 

You have been steadily rising in the world since 

the beginning of this trip, and at Waldorf station, 

although at an exalted altitude, are still far below 

that summit whereto you are bound. But here are 

the seven stages of ascent; 

Feet Miles 

Denver 5,170 

Golden 5,680 16 

Idaho Springs 7,543 37 

Georgetown 8,476 50 

Silver Plume 9,176 54 

Waldorf 11,666 63 

Mount McClellan 14,007 70 

It is four hours from your summer room in 
Denver to the snowbanks and ice palaces on Mount 
McClellan. The aerial railway is constructed in a 
series of switchbacks and lands the visitor on the 
mountain top. It is claimed that, from this majes- 
tic outlook, 106 peaks are visible — some of them to 

40 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

the far north in Wyoming, and others to the west 
where the Utah line rims the horizon. One sixth of 
the entire State of Colorado is before us in one 
immense sweep. It has been happily said that this 
little journey comprises a "life-time in a day." 
Fortunate are those who reach this almost celestial 
air at dawn; then, when the mountain tops begin to 
flush and tremble and glow, and the warm color 
steals down into the valleys far below, disclosing 
unimagined distances all aflame with light, you will 
have known what it is to see the sun rise on 
McClellan. No description can give any idea of 
the majestic grouping of mountain light and 
snowy range, of intermingling valley and cloud 
rifts, towering pine, and the gorgeous gushes of 
sunshine suddenly falling like a cascade over all. 
The vision from these supreme heights is glorious 
beyond description — a sight from the Delectable 
Mountains like unto that which the Pilgrims saw. 

BOULDER 

Boulder, on the Union Pacific, 29 miles from 
Denver, is the seat of the State University, and the 
State Chautauqua grounds. 

The mountain resorts near Boulder are easy of 
access by railroad or carriage, and, in addition to 
well-equipped hotels, there are beautiful lakes and 
crystal streams abounding in mountain trout. 
Stages run daily from Boulder to these points, 
where there are good hotels and excellent accom- 
modations. Because of its natural 'healthfulness, 

41 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

its delightful climate, and its charming location, a 
sanatorium has been established. The city and its 
beautiful environment of valley and hills have 
many superb attractions to the seeker after pleas- 
ure and health. 

Greeley and Fort Collins, still farther north, are 
as justly famed as Boulder Valley. 

Here is a soil and climate that will grow any- 
thing in cereals and fruits. There is, in the orderli- 
ness and the broadly-defined lines of the country, 
that which reminds one of the choicest part of New 
England, only the towns are more thriving than 
any of the nice-looking, but terribly poor, hamlets 
in the older States. 

This is the garden valley. Here are raised all 
the vegetables and fruits which supply the dwellers 
on the high tablelands for many miles around and 
many a far distant State. Down this pleasant 
plain we sweep — the sentinel mountain chain 
always on our right; past Fort Collins with its fine 
buildings and shaded streets — past many a field 
of waving grain, and over many a mountain stream 
— until we glide slowly into Boulder. 

And, then, O honest American citizen — you 
who raved about Switzerland, but never visited 
Colorado — behold this vision! There is a grandly 
impressive background of mountain heights flushed 
now with a tender play of light and color; the 
remoter peaks snow-capped, the nearer foothills 
covered with verdure, and at their feet, nestling in 
security, is Boulder. 

42 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

As far as you can see, down the valley, there 
are silver, shining streams, tiny lakes here and 
there, and many a fair farm land outlined in dim 
repose; back of all, the everlasting hills; before 
you a noble landscape; overhead a dome as clear 
and blue as ever arched Italian skies. 

COLORADO SPRINGS 

Colorado Springs is 73 miles south of Denver, 
and the ride is one of the most charming in 
Colorado. While moving through a beautiful val- 
ley, which gives evidence of fine cultivation, there 
are, on either side, magnificent views of peculiarly 
majestic scenery. We are almost under the 
shadows of the "Prince of the Range," and in the 
presence of the most impressive panorama in 
the Rocky Mountains; to the far south, the Spanish 
Peaks and the lesser brotherhood of snow-crowned 
summits loom and fade and fade and loom, through 
the tranquil summer air, like the baseless fabric of 
a dream. The mountain wall close at hand, the 
vivid green in the near foreground, and the distant 
vision of ever-lengthening receding centennial 
peaks seem like a view from an enchanted valley. 

Colorado Springs is essentially a home resort. 
There are more people who have summer homes 
here than in any of the other frequented places in 
Colorado. There are good hotels in abundance 
and any number of attractive boarding houses; but 
such is the beauty and salubrity of the place, that 
visitors who arrive here make up their minds to 

43 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

stay for the entire season, and, as a result, they 
gather about them the essentials of home life and 
home comfort. There are no factories of any sort 
in Colorado Springs — nothing to take away from its 
quiet, secluded beauty. The streets are broader 
than in most cities, and lined with shade trees. 
The city has 30,000 people, is well lighted and 
paved, and possesses all the modern equipments 
for luxury and comfort in living. 

A few miles distant from Colorado Springs, and 
connected by two lines of railway and street cars, 
is world-famous 

MANITOU 

Everyone has heard of it, hundred of thousands 
have been there and thousands more each succeed- 
ing summer wend their way to this queen of 
mountain resorts. For Manitou possesses a charm 
which lingers — a magic spell which comes unbid- 
den to haunt the traveler who has once rested 
under its witching glamour. 

In the first place, then, just a few practical 
details before we enter upon the poetry of the 
place and the glory of its environment. Manitou 
lies in a cup-like glen, surrounded by mountains, 
and has, for an impressive background, high above 
the surrounding summits, the lonely majesty of 
Pike's Peak. Its regular inhabitants number, per- 
haps, 3,000 or 4,000; there are electric-light plants 
in full working order, three miles of streets lighted 
by arc lights; a beautiful avenue eighty feet 

44 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

wide runs through the village. On this avenue are 
numberless mansions, villas, and cottages. These 
residences are peculiarly elegant in design and 
construction. In the center of the town are the 
springs, enclosed within pleasure-grounds, sparkling 
and bubbling from their hidden reservoirs. Hotels 
are in profusion; boarding-houses, cottages, almost 
any kind of a retreat, sanctuary, or home that a 
traveler may desire. 

The environment of Manitou is remarkable for 
its extent and variety. There is a surfeit of walks, 
rides, and drives: The ascent to the summit of 
Pike's Peak, Glen Eyrie, Queen's Canon, Devils 
Punch Bowl, Cheyenne Canon, and Seven Falls; 
Petrified Trees, Monument Park, with the Mam- 
moth Anvil, Dutch Wedding, Vulcan Work Shop, 
and Dunces' Parliament; Ruxton's Glen, Iron 
Springs, Ute Pass — all these and more. And yet 
there remains the one spot, the Erectheum of the 
place. 

THE GARDEN OF THE GODS 

Perhaps no American writer of recent times has 
pictured Colorado scenery so lovingly, so truthfully, 
and with such finished skill as has Ernest Ingersoll. 
He owns frankly that an accurate description of 
this "ruinous perfection" is almost hopeless. In 
the "Crest of the Continent,'' he says: "There is the 
Garden of the Gods, hidden behind those garish 
walls of red and yellow sandstone, so stark and out 
of place in the soberly-toned landscape that they 

45 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

travesty Nature, converting the whole picture into 
a theatrical scene and a highly spectacular one at 
that. 

"Passing behind the sensation walls, one is not 
surprised to find a sort of gigantic peep-show in 
pantomime. The solid rock has gone masquerading 
in every sort of absurd costume and character. 
The colors of the make-up, too, are varied from 
black through all the browns and drabs to pure 
white and then again through yellows and buffs and 
pinks, up to staring red. Who can portray, ade- 
quately, these odd forms of chiseled stone? I 
have read a dozen descriptions, and so have you, 
no doubt. But one I have just seen in a letter by 
a Boston lady is so pertinent, that you shall have 
the pleasure of reading it : 

'The impression is of something mighty, unreal, 
and supernatural. Of the Gods, surely, but the 
Gods of the Norse Walhalla in some of their strange 
outbursts of wild rage or uncouth playfulness. The 
beauty-loving divinities of Greece and Rome could 
have nothing in common with such sublime awk- 
wardness. Jove's ambrosial curls must shake in 
another Olympia than this.' 

''Weird and grotesque, but solemn and awful at 
the same time, as if one stood on the confines of 
another world, and soon the veil would be rent 
which divided them. Words are worse than useless 
to attempt such a picture. Perhaps, if one could 
live in the shadow of its savage grandeur for 
months until his soul was permeated, language 

46 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

would begin to find itself flowing in proper 
channels; but, in the first stupor of astonishment, 
one must only hold his breath. 

'The Garden itself, the holy of holies, as most 
fancy, is not so overpowering to me as the vast 
outlying wilderness. 

'To pass in between massive portals of rock, of 
brilliant terra-cotta red, and enter on a plain, miles 
in extent, covered in all directions with magnificent 
isolated masses of the same striking color, each 
lifting itself against the wonderful blue of a Colorado 
sky with a sharpness of outline that would shame 
the fine cutting of an etching; to find the ground 
under your feet, over the whole immense surface, 
carpeted with the same rich tint, underlying ara- 
besques of green and gray where grass and mosses 
have crept; to come upon masses of pale, velvety 
gypsum, set now and again as if to make more 
effective by contrast the deep red which strikes the 
dominant chord of the picture; and always, as you 
look through above to catch the stormy billows of 
the giant mountain range, tossed against the sky, 
with the regal, snow-crowned massiveness of Pike s 
Peak rising over all, is something, once seen, never 
to be forgotten. 

"Strange, grotesque shapes, mammoth caricatures 
of animals, clamber, crouch, or spring from vantage 
points hundreds of feet in the air. Here a battle- 
mented wall is pierced by a round window; there 
a cluster of slender spires lift themselves; beyond, 
a leaning tower slants through the blue air, or a cube 

47 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

as large as a dwelling-house is balanced on a pivot- 
like point at the base, as if a child's strength could 
upset it. Imagine all this scintillant with color, set 
under a dazzling sapphire dome, with the silver 
stems and delicate frondage of young cotton-woods 
in one space, or a strong young hemlock lifting 
green symmetrical arms from some high rocky cliff 
in another. This can be told; but the massive 
sky-piled masonry, the almost infernal mixture of 
grandnessand grotesqueness, are beyond expression. 
After the first few moments of wild exclamation 
one sinks into awed silence." 

PLATTE CANON 

Twenty miles from Denver is Platte Canon, and 
through this sinuous rift in the mountains rushes the 
Platte River, dancing out of its shadowy channel 
into the full light of the valley. The South Park 
line, which is the short line to Leadville and the 
Gunnison country, enters the canon where the river 
leaves it. The general aspect is much like that of 
Clear Creek Canon, of which it is a friendly rival. 
It is the same, in being a rocky chasm, its bed a 
rushing stream, but different in its wild contour. 

To reach Platte Canon, the trains pass through 
the western suburbs of Denver skirting the wooded 
banks of the Platte, and, twenty miles out, enter 
the somber canon between lofty and forbidding 
walls which continue for fifty miles, receding at 
times to make room for picturesque little hamlets 

48 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 



like Buffalo, Pine Grove, Slaghts, Grant, Kenosha, 
and Como. At all of these places tourists can be 
accommodated, and trout and game abound. 

At times the train seems about to dash against the 
face of the cliff, but, following the heavy steel 
rails, it turns suddenly and passes by in safety. 
The way through the canon is a series of graceful 
curves, close to the overhanging rocks, often crossing 
the turbulent Platte River. In places, the tops of 
the canon almost seem to touch each other and 
exclude the sun. The canon is a geological study; 
the different formations and the terrific forces which 
have combined them will tell their own stories. 

Dome Rock is like the top of a buried mosque 
and is as regular in shape as if fashioned by the 
hand of man, except that one side is partly broken 
away. Cathedral Spires are in sight for miles, 
despite the winding of the canon, and keep 
re-appearing long after they are passed. 

This canon affords fine opportunities for camp- 
ing out. There is shade in plenty, trout, game, and 
bathing, and good board to be had at neighboring 
houses. But the best way is to live in a tent and 
hire a servant to do the cooking. This is espe- 
cially recommended to the invalid tourists. There 
are fifty miles of this varying panorama, and, after 
the train climbs Kenosha Hill, South Park is seen 
stretching away, one vast and level picture, as 
different from the canon as night is from the day. 
At Como the railway diverges, one line leading to 
Gunnison and the other to Leadville. 

49 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

THE MOFFAT ROAD 

The Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway, 
named by the public the Moffat Road, in honor of 
its builder, David H. Moffat, is being constructed 
from Denver to Salt Lake City in an air line. 
The first fifty miles extending from Denver to Tol- 
land (Boulder Park), was completed and opened 
for traffic July 1, 1904. 

Leaving Denver at an elevation of 5,182 feet, 
the first twenty miles through valleys and foothills 
discloses the richness of the soil; then, for thirty 
miles, the road passes through and along the brow of 
sublime mountains until beautiful Boulder Park 
is reached at an elevation of 8,889 feet. The con- 
tinual change of scenery is one of the greatest 
delights of this wonderful trip. Instead of follow- 
ing the water courses, as was formerly the universal 
custom in constructing mountain railroads, the 
track runs near the lofty crest of the mountain 
range. One moment an enchanting view of the 
plains and valleys holds the traveler spellbound; 
then he is locked in the fastnesses of the mountains 
surrounded by their rugged peaks. Then he passes 
through canons beside rushing mountain streams, 
until, at last, a beautiful wooded park is reached at 
the foot of the snow-capped Continental Divide. 

Wonderful as is the trip from Denver to Tolland, 
it is excelled by the beauties to be enjoyed beyond 
that point. Leaving Tolland, the track rises in 
intricate windings, by a uniform grade until the 

5° 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

backbone of the American continent is reached at 
Corona, a height of 11,660 feet. Then, by a grad- 
ual descent down the Pacific slope of the Conti- 
nental Divide for eleven miles, Arrow is reached, 
at an elevation of 9,585 feet. The completion 
of the road to Yarmony, Colorado, its present 
western terminus, 147 miles from Denver, opens 
a new empire to the sportsman and pleasure-seeker. 
The Fraser and the Grand Rivers in Middle 
Park, and the scores of beautiful streams in Routt 
County, have long been famed for their trout 
fishing; and during recent years, in addition to the 
numerous matured fish in their waters, 2,000,000 
young trout have been planted in these streams 
and their tributaries. This insures unsurpassed 
fishing, and the railroad company will have the 
streams re-stocked annually and prevent fish being 
caught in an illegal manner. The Fraser River is 
within three miles of Arrow, and from this point 
west are numerous streams, all of which are well 
supplied with trout. A regular stage service is 
provided and ample hotel accommodations, or 
weekly board at country homes, can be had at 
reasonable rates. 

CRIPPLE CREEK SHORT LINE 

As a matter of curiosity it is worth while to visit 
a "gold camp" which produces 50,000 tons of ore 
per month, where 5,000 miners are employed; a 
camp which, today, produces one-fourth of the gold 

5i 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

product of the United states and one-seventh of the 
total production of the world. This is the famous 
Cripple Creek district, a place where, for ten years 
past, the gold taken from the earth has averaged 
$22,000,000 a year. You take the train from 
Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek — a distance of 
61 miles — over a road which cost the mine-owners 
of the camp $85,000 per mile to build. 

A distinctive and unusual feature of this trip is 
the construction of the road around the rims and 
over the tops of canons and mountains, instead of 
following the stream levels at the bottom; thus 
affording a magnificent view of the indescribable 
beauties of North and South Cheyenne Canons. 
The scenery on this elevated line is equal to any in 
Colorado. 

Through the Cripple Creek district, eighteen 
miles of electric lines are maintained, which pass all 
the large producing mines in the camp, and a visit to 
Cripple Creek is not complete unless you take the 
"Circle Trip." It is not only one of pleasure, but 
an educational one as well. You will leave the 
camp impressed with the wonderful sights that 
you have witnessed, and also with a good idea of 
how that which we are all seeking is produced. 

ESTES PARK 

Estes Park is a wonderland, a little enchanted 
wilderness, fair as Calypso's Isle, yet as weird 
and fantastic in some of its features as Sir John 

52 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 

Mandeville's "Valley Perilous." The Park is inter- 
esting, not only to the ordinary tourist, but to 
every variety of traveler. The geologist finds fossil 
remains and evidences of his most favorite theories 
of rock and mountain formation; the botanist finds, 
even in earliest springtime, the lavender-tinted 
mountain crocus, following the first departure of 
snow, and, closely in its wake, the mountain daisy, 
with its petals of white and gold; the photographer 
can point to the rarest and most beautiful of 
mountain landscapes; the farmer can find potatoes, 
oats, and various grains growing in valleys and on 
foothills, and within mountain fastnesses. 

It was in Estes Park, near the summer residence 
of one of its greatest admirers, the Earl of Dun- 
raven, that Bierstadt produced some of his grandest 
works; and it was near the same locality that the 
great painter instructed his patron as to the site of 
the Estes Park Hotel. 

'MOST ANYWHERE 

To the brigade commander who galloped up to 
gallant Phil. Kearney, during one of the hottest 
fights of the war, and inquired at what point he 
should begin, the General said, assuringly, "Oh, 
pitch in 'most anywhere; you will find lovely fight- 
ing all along the line.'' And so, by way of com- 
parison, you can go in for enjoyment almost 
anywhere in Colorado, for that region is embarras- 
singly rich in alluring places for rest, recreation, and 
outdoor sports. 

53 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



There is Palmer La/^e, one hour from Denver, 
on the summit of the Continental Divide, good 
hotels, long-distance telephone, quiet, salubrious, 
and mosquitoes unheard of. 

Qlenwood Springs, the splendid, one of the sights 
of Colorado, magnificent hotel, grand bathing- 
a place not to be overlooked. One could spend a 
month at either Shawnee Lodge or Kiowa Lodge in 
Platte Canon, models of excellence in luxurious 
appointment and surpassingly fine cuisine, and situa- 
ted in one of Natures most romantic strongholds. 
Then there is the Royal Gorge — world famous — a 
most majestic defile which one can not afford to miss. 
Take a trip to Leadville, that grand old camp that 
drew its thousands in other years and is still worth 
visiting. 

Go south to Pueblo, the young Pittsburg of the 
West, where the great steel works will impress one 
with the idea that there is some manufacturing 
being done a long way this side of the Alleghenies. 
These and more — go where you will all over the 
State — some to amuse, instruct, or restore. The 
agricultural side of Colorado is rarely studied by 
visitors because the attractions of romantic or 
restful places are strongest, and, to the many, the 
State is forever to be classed as a gold-producer; 
but the truth is (and substantiated by official figures) 
that her agricultural value in farm products for 1909 
was nearly $150,000,000, and the value of her gold 
output was $27,000,000. 

54 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART 



IN THE OPEN 

Whether " heaven lies around us in our infancy ' 
can be accepted without dispute, is a question; but 
certain it is that any man, woman, or child can come 
as near to finding in Colorado an Earthly Paradise 
wherein to enjoy a summers outing as anywhere on 
this continent, at least. For Nature has been prodi- 
gal here; go where you will, there is an inviting 
charm to allure you. The halt and the maimed, the 
consumptive, the tired man, the healthy pleasure- 
seeker or the satiated roamer who has " been abroad,'' 
can find here his particular Arcady and enter into 
possession. There is no question regarding the 
beneficence of clear sunshine and pure mountain 
air, for the tonic balsam of the pines and the vital 
clarity of those upper heights have long ago dis- 
counted the medicine chest and the polite prison 
life of the sanatoriums. 



55 




a 

u 

o 



a 
O 

C 



S3 

Is 
O 



CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 

And Some Scriptural Advice 

'The Empire of Climate," says our observant old 
friend, Montesquieu, "is the most powerful of all 
empires." While this may be unanswerably true the 
first serious difficulty presented in these modern 
times is to locate the empire. 

Very possibly the always-old-ever-new question 
of climate is one of the most contentious and vexing 
themes extant. There are those who can see no 
possible good, let alone attraction, in a certain local- 
ity which, on the other hand, is claimed by its friends 
and supporters to be a veritable Earthly Paradise. 

The real truth is, humanity has been searching 
many long centuries for the Garden which was lost 
— it is a never-dying aspiration. The restless Ameri- 
can demands change of the most pronounced type 
when he selects a playground in his own country; 
but he will go across sea year after year and stand 
the monotony of European show places, pay heavily 
for the illusion, and be content. In climate and 
scenery he has infinitely finer attractions at home. 

On no one point, perhaps, do the disputants vary 
so much as on the choice of a winter resort, where 
earth and air, and sea and sky combine in harmoni- 
ous perfection. But, after all, the individual is the 
proper arbiter. A question of climate can not be 
decided ofT hand for one man, any more than the 

57 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

insistence that a certain brand of cigars is the only 
smoke for him. One citizen may be a slave to the 
glamour of Los Angeles, where it is summer all win- 
ter; but his friend, equally fanatical, stakes his faith 
on Santa Barbara, or Coronado, as the only real rest- 
ful and altogether charming winter resort on the 
Pacific Coast; while a third maintains with firm 
obstinacy that Colorado is the only genuine winter 
Elysium in the Union. And Palm Beach and the 
Bermudas, and Tampa and Cuba each has its 
devotees. 

And so the divergencies of opinion run riot. Yet 
the thoughtful, traveled, unbiased citizen, knows full 
well that for pure, vigorous, vital air tempered with 
the velvety softness of a semi-tropical atmosphere, 
any one of these delightful American havens has 
no superiors and scarcely any equals in Europe. 

The Riviera itself can not claim superiority in 
any respect — either of climate, flora and fauna, fruits, 
or scenery — over the 300 miles of southern Califor- 
nia coast. Where in any old-world waters is there 
such fishing for the big-game fighters of the sea as at 
Avalon, Santa Catalina, or any of the charmed 
regions where the mid-winter air is as soft as the 
breath of the Mediterranean and has none of the 
drawbacks of that district ? And the calm majesty 
of the Pacific, swelling shoreward peacefully, among 
those summer islands which line the coast, does not 
recognize a rival in the world. Take an instance of 
sharp contrast. The Bay of Naples, world famed as 
it is, justly lauded for its beauty, affords no such 

5« 



CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 

bathing as the beach at Monterey — and there is no 
Hotel Del Monte in the Italian City. 

The builders of Del Monte had the attractions of 
all California to choose from, and they placed their 
faith here by the shores of Monterey Bay, 12 5 miles 
south of San Francisco, where 400 years ago civili- 
zation first sought a landing place on our western 
coast. A climate of perennial summer time ; spring, 
river and forest, ocean and bay, lake and mountain, 
wild cliffs and smooth beaches, a wealth of strange 
sea things, near visions of the life of the wilderness, 
and withal charming historic association, and the 
tales of tradition; these they found and encompassed 
into one principality, directed Nature, encouraged 
her, added where addition meant charm, lost none of 
the grace of wildness, but gained the beauty of 
accessibility. Then they built a palace where those 
who live out-of-doors might have a shelter within 
walls, equally pleasing, equally enchanting. To 
wield a wand, to create such an abiding place was 
most difficult, but Hotel Del Monte, with its magnifi- 
cent appointments, its great verandas, parlors, halls, 
recreation rooms, its magnificent suites, its own light- 
ing, heating and water plants, its artistic harmony in 
colors, and management everywhere, meets the need 
of all and may be stamped with the general epithet 
"perfection." 

The environment of this great palace of 500 
rooms is on a generous scale; there are 126 
acres of marvelous landscape gardening, and these 
grounds contain 1,366 different varieties of plant life. 

59 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

This list includes seventy-eight varieties of conifer- 
ous trees, 210 varieties of evergreen trees and 
shrubs, 114 varieties of deciduous trees and shrubs, 
sixty-three varieties of cacti in the Arizona garden, 
285 varieties of herbaceous plants, ninety varieties 
of roses. 

Thirty years and more ago Santa Barbara was 
famous as a lovely resort place. Naturally beautiful, 
lying between the broad beach at the waters edge 
and the Santa Ynez Mountains, it has been helped 
by all that wealth and art and leisure could offer. 
On slopes and terraces its artistic homes have a 
background of ever-blooming flowers, of shrubs and 
trees such as grow best in a semi-tropic clime. The 
one business street, State Street, starts at the water's 
edge at the end of the steamship wharf and extends 
back through the town up the slope. On either side 
are ranged business blocks that give a stranger the 
impression of a city of twenty thousand people. 
The charms of Santa Barbara, consist in its great 
ocean boulevard, fine mountain drives, beautiful 
plaza ard bath-house and fine resort hotels, its per- 
fect climate the year round, its mountain and valley 
tours, fishing and boating and bathing, horseback 
riding, polo playing, golfing, yachting — all these are 
part and parcel of this charming place. 

Now, these two places stand for types of the 
winter-resort towns in Southern California, and for 
300 miles their prototypes line the coast, all having 
a special allurement of distinct character. It may 
be safely stated that no stretch of the same distance 

6o 



CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 

can be found in any foreign country possessing 
such varied charm. 

In this connection it is well to remember that 
the famous Los Angeles Limited, running via the 
Chicago & North Western Railway, the Union Pacific 
Railroad, and the San Pedro Los Angeles & Salt 
Lake Railroad, carries its patrons to these winter 
resorts every day, speedily, in safety, and in comfort, 
the equipment and service of this train being abso- 
lutely the best that money can furnish. 

As a matter of fact, there is an almost endless 
list of Nature Sanatoriums from which to choose — 
anywhere in the Western Empire along the Harri- 
man Lines. If one insists on summer balms during 
wintry blasts, he can find plenty of Avalons all the 
way from Seattle to San Diego; to escape summer's 
heat, the resorts offered present a veritable embar- 
rassment of riches. Wyoming is not surpassed by 
Colorado in sunshine and pure air, and there are, 
perhaps, greater opportunities in the former for closer 
communion with Nature. At Laramie, or Rawlins, 
or Evanston, a camping-out excursion for the whole 
summer can be arranged — a rest cure worth an 
infinitude of pills and potions ; the same at Ogden 
Canon, one of the loveliest spots in the entire West; 
there are innumerable cozy retreats all along the 
Oregon Short Line in Idaho, and Yellowstone 
National Park, the crowning wonder of this conti- 
nent, is at its best during the hot months ; and still 
farther on, the Cascade Range in Oregon and Wash- 
ington, and far to the South the Sierras, where 

61 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Matchless Tahoe sparkles 7,000 feet above sea 
level. There is variety enough, and above all and 
beyond all the pure balsamic-laden air which we 
can not find elsewhere. Dry air, sunshine, the heal- 
ing odor of the pines, and an elevation where 
miasma is impossible — these three beneficent agents 
are the strongest factors to be found in combating 
diseases which afflict those who live at lower levels 
and in a heavier atmosphere. 

SCRIPTURAL ADVICE 

To ' flee unto the mountains," according to 
Scripture warrant, meant sound, sanitary, and health- 
giving results as well as resorting to some secluded 
place for meditation and prayer, and the balm of 
pine and balsam worked together for good, whether 
the trouble was of mind or body. ' From the moun- 
tains cometh our strength," has a far deeper signifi- 
cance than any spiritual or symbolical allusion. The 
Hebrew code of hygiene, of sanitation, of diet, was 
admirably adapted to the condition and environment 
of that nation. The law-givers said ' flee to the 
mountains for health, for rest, for a renewal of vital 
strength, for a cure from the ills from which you 
suffer. Leave these low lands for a time — escape 
from possible miasma, and get your lungs full of pure 
mountain air. Avoid a diet which will surely, in 
this hot climate, breed disorders in your system — go 
up into the mountains." All of which was surely 
sound advice— medical suggestion upon which we 

62 



CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 

have not much improved up to the present time. 
The elder race was wise in its day and generation. 
The "white plague' now holds first place as the 
great destroyer of human life in the United States, 
and the number of deaths every year has reached an 
appalling figure. There has not, as yet, been found a 
nostrum, devised by man, which can successfully 
combat this dread disease. For years the afflicted 
have flocked either to the summer lands of the 
South, which afforded but temporary relief, or to 
the mountain heights of the West, where they often 
die in a little while. To 'flee to the mountains" 
suddenly is certainly disastrous. A patient far gone 
in consumption will not last long in the highly rarified 
atmosphere — the call on the circulatory system is too 
strenuous, and certain collapse must follow. Safety 
lies in a gradual approach — by easy stages — taking it 
slowly and making higher elevation week by week, 
or as strength will permit. Take for instance, a trip 
from Omaha, with that place as the initial point on 
the Union Pacific system. The elevation here is a 
trifle over 1,000 feet above sea level; 300 miles 
west, at North Platte, you are at a 3,000 feet alti- 
tude. Rest there awhile and go on into Denver, 
which is just about a mile in the air above the ocean 
level (5,182 feet). Now for a patient who is striving 
to simply hold his own to attempt the mountain 
passes and high altitudes, within easy reach of 
Denver, would be suicidal. The doctrine of 'slow 
and easy" is the safest, and will bring the most satis- 
factory recompense. 

63 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Forty-five years ago, the old timer in Montana 
believed in only one cure for tuberculosis, and it 
was a brief prescription, "whisky and bronco.'' 
It may have been based on the doctrine of ''kill or 
cure,'' but I have seen some wonderful results from 
this formula. Virginia City was over 7,000 feet alti- 
tude, and the air was as pure and vital as a man ever 
breathed; the proof standard of the whisky or the 
moral rectitude of the broncos can not be vouched 
for; but many a man who came to Alder Gulch 
pale, dejected, thin, and hollow-chested, developed 
into a robust man. The tonic air healed his lungs, 
the fiery spirits stimulated every fibre of his being, 
and the unruly mustang gave all necessary exercise. 
It is not intended to offer this prescription as a sover- 
eign remedy — simply a report which fell under my 
observation. 

' But,'' protests the average citizen, " I am not a 
consumptive, nor have I need of your odious cure, 
which I am sure would kill people rather than help 
them. What I want is a place to go in the winter or 
summer just for rest and enjoyment.'' And the 
answer again is, ' flee to the mountains.' If you 
can find a more delightful place in this country at 
any season of the year than Colorado Springs — 
go there. Here is an ideal town — high enough 
to make your blood tingle — a city where great 
wealth has retired and built costly homes — a beau- 
tiful place embowered with trees and mantled with 
flowers in all its borders. There is not even a 
factory here to break, with discordant shrieks, on 

64 



CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 

the tranquil beauty of the place. Near at hand is 
the far-famed Garden of the Gods, one of the most 
wonderful spots in the whole range of the Rockies, a 
weird, wild, supernatural place, wjiich has no counter- 
part elsewhere. You can go by motor car in a few 
moments, or scale Pikes Peak (14,441 feet) if your 
heart valves are in good working order. A short dis- 
tance away is Manitou — beloved of the Gods indeed 
— one of the most dainty, winsome little gems in the 
world, cradled in a deep cup in the heart of the moun- 
tains, with myriad springs of sparkling water on every 
side. There is a charm about Manitou which seems 
to fascinate and hold, and the world-weary turn here 
again and again when satiated with lesser pleasures 
and even more magnificent visions. 

Denver itself, reached from either Kansas City or 

Omaha by Union Pacific, possesses an alluring 

charm. It is one of the most metropolitan cities on 

this continent, and its growth from a lone miners 

cabin to a city of such spacious dimensions, in the 

short space of fifty years, is one of the marvels only 

possible in American progress. There is enough 

alone in Denver to engage the attention for many 

weeks, and the easy accessibility of every place of 

resort in Colorado from this central point gives it a 

distinct advantage as a starting place or a pivotal 

point from which to radiate in every direction in 

quest of refuges for the weary. Sunshine all the 

time — at any rate they have a record of 300 days a 

year — the native Coloradoan emphatically asserts that 

there are no days when you can not see the sun — and 

65 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

an atmosphere which is a life tonic. Rest, recreation, 
health, rejuvenation — a real finding of youth — await 
all those who 'flee to the mountains' before it is 
too late. 

We have made no mention in detail of the "heal- 
ing pools'' — those Bethesdas which exist all over the 
West. There are thousands of these in every State 
from Nebraska and Kansas to the Pacific Coast, 
possessing curative properties for well nigh all the 
ills that flesh is heir to. Some are fashionable 
resorts, some close to the sea, some hidden away 
among the hills, some shrined in a sequestered valley. 
If, on some tranquil afternoon of perfect California 
summer or winter weather, you should wander into the 
old Mission of San Miguel, or San Luis, or San Juan, 
you will see rare pieces of altar covers, vestments 
and other insignia of the church of most exquisite 
design and workmanship. These were worked by 
the hands of the Spanish Queen and her court ladies 
and sent, over, after the Mission of San Miguel had 
been established in 1797, in devout recognition of 
the marvelous cures attested at Paso Robles — the 
famous spring near by. So that particular Bethesda 
is peculiarly associated with early Californian 
history, for it was the curative power of the waters 
which decided the Franciscan fathers to establish 
a mission here. In addition to an unusually large 
number of different virtued waters, such as lithia, 
iron, sulphur and the like — hot and cold — there are 
the wonderful mud baths — a place where vegetable 
mud, hot lithia and mineral water bubbles up at 

66 



CLIMATE AND CLAIMANTS 



a temperature of 108 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. 
There are many wonderful cures reported in cases 
of rheumatism, gout, sciatica, neuralgia, etc. It was 
here that Admiral Robley Evans found health and 
strength after the long cruise; his rheumatism was 
speedily subjugated by these baths. The hotel is 
built of marble, tile, and metal — a beautiful building, 
equipped with every known device for "water 
curing." 

The purple mountains of the Santa Lucia and 
the silver strip of a river, the Salinas, hem in these 
springs; the mountains, 4,000 feet high, have a 
cloak of oak forest, and here and there tall pines 
and lesser trees and shrubs and many flowers. Paso 
Robles is the half-way house between Los Angeles 
and San Francisco, on the coast line of the South- 
ern Pacific. Ten passenger trains a day afford facili- 
ties for luxurious travel from Los Angeles to Santa 
Barbara, Santa Barbara to Paso Robles Hot Springs, 
Paso Robles Hot Springs to Del Monte, Del Monte 
to Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz to San Jose, San Jose to 
San Francisco. 



67 




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WYOMING VISTAS 

There was a time — not so very long ago ^either — 
when the meagre word "Wyoming" conjured visions 
of a howling wilderness, bewildering solitudes, unim- 
agined deeps of mountain recesses — and the world- 
famed bad town — the one wickedest spot on earth- 
Cheyenne. It is curious to note, as an instance of 
growth in the West, that for fourteen years past the 
citizens of Cheyenne have celebrated "Frontier Day," 
a festival illustrating, and commemorating in a certain 
sense, the fashions of pioneer days; feats of horse- 
manship, steer-roping contests, bronco races, and the 
like. So the modern staid, settled city of To-day is 
so old in Western advancement that it reproduces, as 
an object lesson, the sports, the games, the pastimes, 
and the working methods of Yesterday — which was 
ever so long ago! 

Historic Cheyenne, 516 miles from Omaha on the 
main line of the Union Pacific, is the capital of 
Wyoming and the seat of Laramie County. Those 
who are looking for a cowboy town will not see 
many evidences of his free and easy reign in this 
solidly built, prosperous, and progressive city of 
25,000 inhabitants. Gas and electric lights; one 
of the finest waterworks systems in the West; three 
reservoirs of 2,000,000 gallons and one of 1,000,000 
gallons capacity; one of the largest shop plants on 
the Union Pacific, capacity 1,200 men; a spacious 
Federal building; imposing blocks of business houses 

6 9 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

and handsome residences show that a city has taken 
the place once occupied by a rude frontier town. 

Fort D. A. Russell, a military post, is 3 miles 
distant. The reconstruction of Fort Russell at a cost 
of over $3,000,000 makes it now one of the finest 
military posts in the country, accommodating an 
entire brigade of troops. 

It would be impossible to find a greater contrast 
in the physical features of a State than one finds in 
Wyoming. The great plains in their Western sweep 
abut against the easterly mountain ranges or pass 
about their terminations as they reach westward 
toward South Pass or northward toward Montana. 
From the plains the lower portion of the State passes 
into plateaus, broad valleys leading to the greater 
mountain ranges and deserts that occupy the broad, 
arid expanses between the elevated areas. It may 
seem singular, but it is no less a fact, that a person 
can pass from east to west across Wyoming and not 
cross a mountain range. The Union Pacific Railroad 
crosses only the Rocky Mountains as it traverses 
Wyoming. From the plains and tablelands the 
mountains rise in their majestic grandeur, with the 
hundreds of watercourses, curiously carved canons, 
inaccessible nooks and peaks, which are in part 
clothed with a dark green verdure that from a dis- 
tance causes the mountains to appear black, above 
which tower the peaks of eternal snow. The story 
of the sister States and their wonderful scenery has 
largely been written; but that of Wyoming must be 
told by someone in the future. Treasures of the 

70 



WYOMING VISTAS 



rarest kind await the ambitious in the great mountain 
ranges of the interior. No State offers to the poet or 
the artist greater opportunities than Wyoming does 
at the present time. 

Wyoming has its "Alpine" ranges in the Rocky 
Mountain chain, which, with its collateral off-shoots 
and spurs, rises in lofty grandeur throughout the 
State. Its snow-capped peaks, its valleys, basins, 
and plains are marked with many wonderful curiosi- 
ties, wrought by the steady, quiet hand of Nature 
through the various elements at her command, which 
tell us of the long ages of the past. The wonderful 
power of these elements — atmosphere, heat, and 
water — in their various relations, is here demonstrated 
in the upheavals, the depressions, the deep, rock-cut 
canons, awe-inspiring cataracts and beautiful cascades, 
fantastic rocky monuments carved from mountain 
ranges by the erosive and glacial action of ages past. 
Mounds, buttes, and dunes rise with artistic symmetry, 
as though thoughtful skill had formed them rather 
than the action of the drift. These, with the water- 
courses that flow from mountain ranges down through 
deep valleys and canons, falling over rocky ledges 
for hundreds of feet, across grass-covered plains, and 
with numerous lakes embosomed on the high plateaus, 
slopes, and bases of these ranges, present scenic 
views doubtless more grand and more wonderful 
than any other region of country on the globe. 

Of mountain heights there are but few on the 
North and South American continents of greater 
elevation than Fremont's Peak, of the Wind River 

7i 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Range, 13,790 feet above the sea; and Elk Moun- 
tain, 11,511 feet, is one of the most picturesque peaks 
of the entire range. 

CLIMBING THE ROOF 

It is hard to realize we are climbing the steep slope 
of the Rocky Mountains, as we travel westward on 
the Union Pacific Railroad, after leaving Cheyenne 
on such a stiff grade. But we have been coming up 
hill for 500 miles and more from Omaha or Kansas 
City; Omaha is a trifle over 1,000 feet above sea 
level, and at Cheyenne we have ascended nearly a 
mile since leaving the broad plains of the fertile 
Kansas-Nebraska country. In the nineteen miles 
from Cheyenne to Granite Canon the ascent is 254 
feet; from Granite Canon to Buford, in a distance of 
eight miles, we rise 546 feet, and mounting still 
higher we arrive, four miles from Buford, at Sherman, 
the highest point on the road, having an altitude of 
8,010 feet above sea level. In the last four miles we 
ascend 1 52 feet. 

LARAMIE 

Population 10,000; Elevation 7,145 feet 

Laramie, 576 miles from Omaha, is one of the 
most beautifully situated cities in Wyoming and a 
fine example of Western thrift and progress. It is 
well to remember the evolution in a few years of a 
town like this from a lonesome station on the Laramie 
Plains to a metropolitan place which has a board 

72 



WYOMING VISTAS 



of trade, electric lights, sewer system, and water 
works. Here are the Wyoming State University. 
Agricultural College, Normal School, School of 
Mines, United States Experiment Station, and State 
Fish Hatchery. The bright, invigorating climate and 
pure, clear air, and spring water are especially bene- 
ficial for throat, pulmonary, and malarial troubles; 
hard, dry gravel roads in all directions and at all 
seasons make this the cycler's or motorist's paradise. 
Laramie has railroad division terminals, rolling mills, 
making rails, plates, bars, etc.; machine shops, two 
cement plaster mills, planing mills, stock yards, feed- 
ing and dairying, and an unusual variety of industries 
not often found in a city of this size. 

FOSSIL REMAINS 

The drop from 8,010 in the air at Sherman Hill 
to 7,145 feet at Laramie — 865 feet in twenty-six 
miles — is a pretty fair toboggan slide. The famous 
Laramie Plains comprise a tract of the richest grazing 
and agricultural lands in the State, and the district 
is about seventy miles wide by 1 30 miles long. Wyo- 
ming has long been known to scientific men as 
one of the richest treasure fields in fossil deposits on 
this continent, and Laramie is the usual outfitting 
point for exploration parties, of which there have 
been scores in the past forty years, including the 
famous survey of Hayden, and the wonderful find 
of gigantic fossils by Professor Marsh of Yale 
College. An unusually fine display of these huge 

73 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

prehistoric monsters is shown in the University 
Museum at Laramie, and they are of absorbing 
interest to the paleontologist. 

RAWLINS 

Population 4,000; Elevation 6,741 feet 

Rawlins is 693 miles from Omaha and is situated 
near the greatest hunting country of northern 
Colorado, and the Big Horn and Wind River coun- 
tries of Wyoming. Stage lines connect with all 
interior points. The United States Military wagon 
road to Fort Washakie, near Lander, connects this 
point with the Yellowstone National Park. Tourists 
can take stage, which leaves daily for Lander, at 
which point necessaries in the shape of outfits 
of all kinds, horses, wagons, guides, and supplies, 
may be had in profusion. Rawlins is headquarters 
for the mining interests of Grand Encampment and 
Four Mile districts, also outfitting point for the copper 
deposits of the Battle Lake district and general head- 
quarters for the sheep and cattle interests of this 
section. It is one of the largest wool-shipping points 
in the West and has electric lights, good hotels, and 
all the necessary adjuncts of a prospering town. 

LIVE STOCK PARADISE 

This was a foreordained stock country, although 
in later years the industrial side has made rapid 
advances. Prior to 1870 comparatively little stock 
raising was done because it was thought the winters 

74 



WYOMING VISTAS 



were too severe for open grazing; but the early 
settlers began to experiment, and it was found that 
the greater portion of Wyoming was admirably 
adapted to the live-stock industry. Nutritious 
grasses that cure standing on the ground furnished 
good grazing both in winter and summer. The great 
grain-growing States of Nebraska and Kansas are 
directly on the route of shipment to market, so that 
live stock bred and reared on the ranges can be 
fattened and finished in the cheapest grain country 
in the world while en route to points of sale. 

Disease was unknown, the grass grew abundantly, 
cured excellently, and carried through the winter all 
classes of live stock without having to furnish any 
considerable amount of hay or grain. The Union 
Pacific afforded quick transportation eastward, and 
the freight rates were low compared with the tariff 
charged on other commodities. As the business 
grew, immense profits were realized; capital came in 
from all parts of the East and the Old World, and the 
statement, that all a man required in Wyoming to 
become rich was to own cattle, was rarely disputed. 

Foot-rot is unknown; for the dryness of the soil 
acts as a preventive, and also speedily cures without 
the application of remedies when Eastern sheep are 
brought here affected with it. 

Sheep graze the year round; but, when an occa- 
sional snowfall is deep enough to prevent their 
reaching the ground, it is necessary to feed hay. On 
an average, during the past ten years, not more than 
fifteen days of each year has it been necessary to 

75 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

feed hay or grain to strong, healthy sheep. The 
weaker animals require more nourishment; but in 
many instances they have done well without hay or 
other feed than that found on the open range, for 
several years in succession. 

Nearly all the grazing lands in Wyoming are 
adapted to sheep growing. The sheep now raised 
are of good grade, and will yield an average per 
head throughout the flocks of six to eight pounds 
of wool. 

ROCK SPRINGS 

Population 6,000; Elevation 6,256 feet 

Rock Springs is 812 miles from Omaha. The 
fame of its coal mines has spread all over the trans- 
Missouri region, and unquestionably Sweetwater 
County is the greatest coal-producing district in 
the Rocky Mountains. The coal mines here give 
employment to 4,000 men. The town is equipped 
with waterworks which cost $300,000, uses electric 
lights, has banks, newspapers, fine schools and num- 
erous churches and hotels. The Wyoming State 
Hospital is here. 

GREEN RIVER 

Population 2,500; Elevation 6,077 feet 

Green River, 827 miles from Omaha, is in the 
same county as Rock Springs and is general head- 
quarters for the vast sheep and cattle interests of this 
section. It is the county seat. The town has the 

76 



WYOMING VISTAS 



usual equipment of electric light service, water 
system, schools, churches, and a fine Carnegie library. 
The curious formations on the cliffs back of the town 
are a wonderful sight. Trains are made up here for 
the Oregon Short Line through service to Portland, 
Tacoma, and Seattle, and these trains leave the 
Union Pacific at Granger, 30 miles west. The through 
trains to Salt Lake, Los Angeles, and San Francisco 
keep the Union Pacific main line, and after leaving 
Granger pass through some of the finest scenery in 
the Rockies. 

IMMORTAL SOIL 

Any man looking across a tract of apparently 
barren waste naturally concludes that the outlook is 
decidedly unpromising, and, if he be a farmer, that 
such land is well-nigh worthless. Well, let us 
investigate for a moment, as we slip along through 
some such section. Sagebrush and a few rocks 
cropping out, and not very good-looking soil? True. 
Italy has been cultivating soil for a matter of two or 
three thousand years and the soil is good yet, is it 
not? Lands in France which have been in use for 
centuries are still productive, are they not? What 
makes the soil of the Sandwich Islands so fertile? 
Why has soil in many Eastern States lost its vitality 
when the earth in countries centuries older con- 
tinues to yield bountifully? The answer is lava 
A soil which will last is imbued with some inherent 
staying quality, the reason is simple, for these are 

77 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

volcanic lands, and wherever in the world the soil 
is based on a lava flow, it is practically indestruct- 
ible and, comparatively speaking, will never wear 
out. Lava soil seems to possess the quality of 
rejuvenation — a youth-restoring process, wherein 
none of its virility or productive character is lost. 
Wyoming is underlaid with this basaltic basis. Water? 
These people are spending $50,000,000 on irriga- 
tion propositions, and the farmer who can turn on 
water over his fields at will has solved a problem 
which makes him independent of rainfall and the 
weather prophets, for his crop is assured. 

• 

EVANSTON 
Population 4,000; Elevation 6,739 feet 

Evanston is 927 miles from Omaha. Beautifully 
situated in Bear River Valley, the city has six 
churches, three schools, a new $12,000 high school, 
flour mill, water plant owned by the city, electric 
lights, two weekly newspapers, an opera house, two 
banks with $650,000 deposits, lumber yards, four 
hotels, restaurants, an ice storage plant, with 18,000 
tons capacity, a city park, two small railroad parks, 
new and attractive depot, round house and machine 
shops. It derives its material strength from the live 
stock of the country, supplemented by the round 
house and machine shops of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road. The new Federal building cost $200,000. 
Evanston is well laid out and has a large number of 

78 



WYOMING VISTAS 



beautiful homes. This city is the seat of the State 
Insane Asylum, and the United States Land Office; 
it is also headquarters for oil men. This is the 
freight-distributing center for Bear River Valley, 
and many other points within a distance of 250 
miles in all directions. 

HEALING BALM OF MOUNTAIN AIR 

But few diseases germinate inWyoming. Indeed, 
lung affections, such as bronchitis, lung fever or 
pneumonia, and pleurisy, rarely occur. Hence, per- 
sons who have any predisposition to consumption 
find this climate favorable for its eradication or at 
least a prolonged lease of life. Many instances of 
recovery have occurred here; in fact it is the general 
result, nine-tenths of the persons who have sought 
this climate for the benefit of lung troubles, unless 
they were in the last stages of consumption, having 
been restored. Many persons who have reached 
the stage of hemorrhage from the lungs — which is 
regarded by medical men as a dangerous degree in 
the progress of the insidious disease — have come to 
this locality and in the course of time have been 
restored through climatic influences. However, 
there are advanced stages of the wasting away of 
the lungs beyond which no medical treatment nor 
climatic influences will restore the afflicted. 

Acute rheumatism and neuralgia are uncommon 
here but slight attacks are frequently felt. Persons 
affected with a seated disease of the heart should 

79 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

not come to this altitude; but those suffering from 
general nervous debility or dyspepsia will find 
Wyoming an excellent climate for its cure. 

As a region for asthmatic people, Wyoming has 
few equals, as many residents within its limits will 
attest. The worst cases of this distressing lung 
trouble will find sure cure here. Many hundreds of 
people of all ages thus afflicted have come here 
from the low altitudes of the East and West and 
been restored to health in due course of time. 

NOBLE SCENERY 

It is 76 miles from Evanston to Ogden, and 
every foot of the way is crowded with glorious 
scenery. First comes Echo Canon, a superb defile, 
of which an English traveler says: "So far in our 
overland journey we have met with no striking 
instance of that most frequently occurring feature of 
these regions — the canon. What in the Far West is 
so termed is sometimes a narrow chasm in the 
mountains, the bottom of which is often the bed of 
a stream of water, the cliffs on either side being nearly 
perpendicular or even inclining toward each other. 
Echo Canon has every feature of impressiveness — 
strong, determinate color, majestic forms, and a 
novel weirdness. Usually the descent into the canon 
begins soon after dinner at Evanston; the air coming 
from the mountains is inspiring; the afternoon light 
is growing mellower, and all the conditions are 
favorable to the highest enjoyment." 

80 



WYOMING VISTAS 



CASTLE ROCK 

Castle Rock marks the beginning of this exciting 
ride, the rock itself being one of the most perfect of 
those impressive types of Nature's handiwork — for 
its symmetrical form and rigid adherence to architect- 
ural rules would stamp it as the work of man. 

OLD FORTIFICATIONS 

During the so-called "Mormon War,'' when John- 
son's army was on its way to Utah, stone-work 
fortifications were erected at intervals along the crests 
of the cliffs. Whether or not these primitive defenses 
would have proved a check to the advance of the 
Federal troops is a matter of much conjecture. Phil 
Robinson thinks they would have caused a decided, 
though not a final, halt. 'These rough defenses," 
he writes in his "Sinners and Saints," "would have 
cost the army very dear. For these stone-works, like 
the Afghan's songhums, and intended, of course, for 
cover against small arms only, were carried along the 
crests of the cliffs for some miles, and each group 
was connected with the next by a covered way, 
while, in the bed of the stream below, ditches had 
been dug (some six feet deep and twenty wide), 
right across from cliff to cliff, and a dam constructed 
just beyond the first ditch which in an hour or 
two would have connected the whole canon for a 
mile or so into a level sheet of water. On this dam 
the Mormon guns were masked, and though, of 
course, the Federal artillery would soon have knocked 

81 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

them off into the water, a few rounds at such a range 
and raking the army — clubbed as it would probably 
have been at the ditches — must have proved terribly 
effective. This position, morever, though it could 
easily be turned by a force diverging to the right 
before it entered the canon, could hardly be turned 
by one that had already entered it. And to attempt 
to storm those heights with men of the caliber of the 
Transvaal Dutchman holding them would have been 
splendid heroism — or worse." 

PEACEFUL DAYS 

But all this was happily averted, and now we 
smile that we ever thought it was possible. Since 
185 7 things have changed. No longer the long train 
of dust-covered wagons, drawn by the slow and 
patient oxen, winds through the deep defile. No 
longer the pony express or the lumbering stage coach 
brings the quickest word, or forms the fastest trans- 
port between the intermountain regions and the 
"States." The iron steed and the Pullman car have 
supplanted them all; and daily the great freight trains 
gliding down the canon bring more merchandise, 
representing more wealth, than in the early days 
passed between its portals in a year. 

From these old rock-works, perched like crows' 

nests on high, a splendid view of the canon may be 

obtained. 

WEBER VALLEY 

Still winding down we follow the old Mormon 
trail, flashing by "Steamboat Rocks,'' "Gibraltar,'' 

82 



WYOMING VISTAS 



"Monument Rock," and "Pulpit Rock," so called 
both from its shape and from the supposition that 
Brigham Young preached from it his first sermon in 
Utah, addressed to the pioneers then on their way to 
Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The next station is Echo 
City, and then we enter Weber Valley. 

WEBER CANON 

Between the little town of Echo and the head of 
the canon there are several miles of the Weber 
Valley, with its fields of alfalfa, or "lucern," as the 
people choose to call it. Horses and cattle browse 
in the meadows, and farm houses are perched on the 
hillsides. Close to Echo is the curious group of 
rocks called "The Witches." As we pass down the 
Weber Valley the scene is really a pastoral one. The 
broad plain left by the encircling mountains is green 
and fresh; the river winds through its grassy expanse 
in pleasant quiet without brawl or rush; the trees are 
like those in familiar eastern country-side. Only the 
great outlines of the surrounding hills — and here and 
there, on the horizon, some sharper, higher, more 
distant peaks— show the traveler his whereabouts, 
and take his mind from the quieter aspect of what 
lies about him; near by, in valleys leading into this, 
are various Mormon settlements, for we are now 
fairly into the country of the "Saints." 

Weber Canon is not, as some writers have 
described it, simply a long defile through the moun- 
tains, with perpendicular heights walling in its entire 
length; but is a succession of true mountain scenery; 

83 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

mighty gateways; long narrow valleys; visions of 
great peaks, lifting jagged fronts to the sunset, and 
holding in their scaurs and ravines eternal snow; 
heights crested with pine and aspen; belts, bastions, 
barbicans, towers, and domes of rock, and creeping 
among them such varieties of foliage as might be 
expected from the diversity of soil and position. 

First, there is the eastern entrance, or Wilhelmina 
Pass, a narrow gateway between a huge square bluff 
on the left hand, and a hill on the right, surmounted 
by a vast mass of reddish-gray rock, shaped exactly 
like a castle keep. Between their feet there is 
scarcely room for passage of railway and stream, 
and the emigrant road, too, has to struggle through; 
for it still keeps them company, following all the 
tortuous windings of the river, and rising and fall- 
ing, first in a hollow and then crossing over some 
spur of the mountain. 

DEVIL'S SLIDE 

A few hundred feet farther, and we are at the 
world-famous, the most wonderful of all natural 
curiosities, the unique Devil s Slide, about which so 
much has been talked and written. It has been 
sketched and painted and photographed times with- 
out end; and truly it is a singular formation. It has 
been declared to be without grandeur, and this is 
true; it has no pretensions in this line, but its singu- 
larity makes it so conspicuous. Throughout the 
entire country, although there are many similar 
formations, there is nothing at all approaching it in 

84 



WYOMING VISTAS 



fantastic appearance. The hill, or rather mountain, 
from whose side the walls project, is composed 
almost entirely of a dark red sandstone; while the 
material of the "Slide" itself is a whitish sandstone. 
In order to gain something of an idea of the appear- 
ance it presents to the traveler as he is carried past, 
let us first imagine we are looking full at the face of 
the steep mountain (a mountain about 800 feet high), 
remember the red tinge of its rocks, cover them with 
bunches of pale green artemisia or sagebrush, clusters 
of scrub oak, and at irregular intervals, a tall, dark 
pine. Out of this mountain, from top to base, let 
there be thrust two white gray walls, parallel with 
each other, perhaps eighteen or twenty feet apart 
and rising from twenty to forty feet in height; let 
this monstrous slide, or whatever we choose to call 
it, end abruptly at the rivers brink and be reflected 
in its waters, and we have a fair conception of this 
most singular object of all the sportive creations of 
Nature in the West. 

THE 1,000-MILE TREE 

A little farther on stood, until a few years ago, 
the famous 1, 000-Mile Tree which, by a curious 
chance, marked the one-thousandth mile from 
Omaha. This distance is not, however, correct now, 
as the shortening of the line has greatly reduced 
the mileage between Omaha and Ogden. The 
tree stood immediately alongside the track on the 
left-hand side as we go west. 

85 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

DEVIL'S GATE 

The Devil's Gate comes last in the list of sights. 
As may be inferred from the name, it is a gateway, a 
passage riven through the mountain. The river 
comes roaring through the open space bringing with 
it a wind that never ceases. The train does not 
pass through the gate, but crosses a trestle bridge 
directly in front, and thus we see the place better 
than if the train passed through. To get the strong- 
est impression of the scene we should view its gloomy 
surroundings under the effect produced by a stormy 
sky; it is always impressive, though more so when 
the storm-clouds come dashing across the opening 
above and are caught and torn to pieces on the 
sharp crags on the mountain tops. 

Shortly after leaving the gate, the locomotive 
whistle sounds for Uintah station. This is in the 
mouth of the canon, so that in a few minutes more 
the Salt Lake Valley opens out to our view. Near 
by is Ogden among its bowers of trees; farther 
away, a broad plain; the shining waters of the lake, 
still farther; and, beyond that again, a range of moun- 
tains on the western borders of Utah, and dim, vapory 
peaks rising from the plains of Nevada. 



86 



OUR PLAYGROUNDS 

We own so many playgrounds in this Empire of 
the West that it is somewhat difficult to choose the 
place where we may enjoy our summer or winter 
playtime vacation. In Europe the choice of the place 
is very nearly restricted to Switzerland or the Riviera, 
whereas we may elect for the cool retreats of Colorado 
or Wyoming, Salt Lake and the hidden beauties 
of Idaho, Shoshone and Hood River Valley, and the 
whole of the Pacific Coast country from Mount Tacoma 
to Yosemite, a glorious array of Nature loveliness. 

George T. Edmunds, the "old man eloquent" of the 
Senate, in speaking of the scenic wonders of our own 
land, once said, in noting a single feature with which 
he was familiar, "I have been through the Swiss moun- 
tains and am compelled to own that there is no 
comparison between the finest effects exhibited there 
and what is seen in approaching this grand and 
isolated mountain (Mount Tacoma). If Switzerland 
is rightly called the 'playground of Europe,' I am 
satisfied that this and many other localities in this 
country will become prominent places of resort, not 
for America only, but the world besides. For the 
continent is as yet in ignorance of our grandest show 
places and Nature sanatoriums. I would willingly go 
500 miles again to see that scene." Judge Edmunds 
wasan uncompromising American, and it was refresh- 
ing to hear such loyalty to country from the lips of a 
man eminent as a wise counsellor and brilliant states- 

87 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

man. His quoted words were spoken many years 
ago, and since then a curious revulsion has occurred; 
our people continue to go to Europe, spending millions 
of dollars a year and absenting themselves from 
supreme grandeurs at home, while the keener seekers 
for wild and rugged beauty who live across the water 
come to this country to find that which is not equaled 
in their own land. 

It is fair to say, however, that one prominent fea- 
ture of old country sightseeing and travel has always 
been the ease with which all the "show places" were 
reached. Our stretch of country was so great, and 
so many of our most impressive points were located in 
places where, so to speak, the "elementary forms of 
empire" were not even plastic, that a journey hither 
was accompanied with no small amount of discomfort. 
And in direct contrast we had, on the other hand, 
the European playgrounds offered as the supreme 
luxury of "touring made easy." But in recent 
years we have made great advances in this regard — 
the approaches to our pleasure-grounds are well- 
nigh primrose paths. You step from your Pullman 
at the gateway of Yellowstone National Park; the 
same luxurious service lands you at El Portal in 
Yosemite — and when the electric road is completed 
around the rugged sides of Tacoma the ascent of our 
noblest mountain will entail no more hardship than a 
trolley ride around the pleasant streets of Portland, 
the beautiful " Rose City." 

The later indications point to a revival of Ameri- 
canism. There are more and more people every 

88 



OUR PLAYGROUNDS 



year who come to see these Western wonders. And 
it is a healthy sign. Henry T. Finck, the eminent 
critic, in a charming paper in the Century Magazine 
for February, 1910, discourses in leisurely fashion 
upon some of the phases above noted, Mr. Finck 
says, 'There are indications that the exhortation, 
' See America First,' so dear to Western editors, 
especially those of the Pacific Slope, is making 
its appeal to a greater number of persons every 
year, at least in its modified form, ' See America 
Also.' For my part after touring Europe nine times 
and the Pacific Slope nearly as often, I usually 
make it a toss-up which to visit next, and I know 

others who feel the same way Mount 

Hood is to Oregon, and especially to Portland, what 
Fuji is to Japan. It unites beauty with grandeur as, 
perhaps, no other mountain does except the Swiss 
Jungfrau ; yet, together with the other snow peaks 
visible from Portland Heights, it can not be seen for 
weeks at a time in summer, except by going up to 
Government Camp on the south side, or to Cloud 
Cap Inn on the north. 

Yet how few know anything about this, the real 
Switzerland of America! It has not been advertised, 
not been made accessible as the California view- 
points have. The Oregonians and Washingtonians 
are just beginning to wake up to their duty in this 
respect. It is significant that the official book on the 
State of Washington distributed at the Seattle Exposi- 
tion, after dwelling on the State's marvelous resources, 
exclaims that ' still its crowning glory is its matchless 



89 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

scenery." Some day this may prove true even from 
a utilitarian point of view. The billions of fishes — 
among them ninety-five edible kinds — may be exter- 
minated ; the 120,000,000,000 feet of timber may 
be cut down or devoured by flames ; insects may 
destroy the hops and orchards — including that tree 
at Lexington which bears one thousand five hundred 
pounds of Royal Anne cherries in a year ; but 
the scenery — including the fiords and peaks and 
glaciers of Alaska, to which Seattle is the gateway — 
will remain forever; and, knowing as I do the glories 
of this region, I do not hesitate to predict that within 
a few decades the summer climate and scenery of 
this Northwest will be a source of revenue second 
to none. Recall what her climate and scenery have 
done for California; and think of the some sixty mil- 
lion dollars which Switzerland derives every year 
from her scenery and her summer climate!" 

The good natured irony regarding the "joy of 
western editors in making the appeal 'See America 
First,' will be received as a compliment. They 
continually make this exhortation and for the 
good and sufficient reason that the domain they 
represent, and whose glories they vaunt, possesses 
the scenery. Was it not worthy old Master Fuller 
who said, ' Know most of the rooms of thy native 
country before thou goest over the threshhold 
thereof." 



90 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

Any attempt to describe the Salt Lake City of 
today would involve a solid array of imposing 
statistical figures, an elaborate review of what has 
been done, the status today, and the outlook 
for tomorrow; for the undisputed queen of the 
intermountain region — a splendid metropolitan 
city of 90,000 people— can not be dismissed with a 
few rapid-fire paragraphs of generalization. Keen- 
sighted, level-headed Samuel Bowles, away back in 
1865, wrote home when he visited here, "No 
internal city of the continent lies in such a field of 
beauty, unites such rich and rare elements of 
Nature's formations, holds such guarantees of great- 
ness, material and social, 'in the good time coming 
of our Pacific development. I met, all along the 
plains and over the mountains, the feeling that 
Salt Lake City was to be the great central city of 
the West." 

All true; and the dream or prophecy finds its 
fulfillment today in a city imposing architecturally, 
a great artery of commerce, with no rivals near her 
and a limitless future. One day's walk about the 
town will demonstrate to the visitor what has been 
accomplished here in transforming a desert out- 
post into a fully-equipped metropolis in fifty years. 
No other city was ever founded in such a forbidding 

9 1 




The Newhouse Building and a Portion of Federal Building, 
bait Lake City, Utah 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

region, so far away from human habitations; no 
other city had so much to contend with, the preju- 
dices of both Nature and men, the odds of the 
wilderness and the warfare of the creeds. But all 
these impediments have been swept away, and 
today Salt Lake holds dominion over the trade 
and industry of an area rich and productive enough 
to insure many times over the fulfillment of the 
prophecy of Samuel Bowles. 

There is so much of advance on every hand in 
the Empire of the West that one reaches satiety 
often. Turn we rather to some of the great land- 
marks which denote the growth of this wonderful 
city instead of making vain comparisons between 
the Newhouse thirteen-story building and one 
which looks just like it in Chicago or Cleveland. 
Let us take a walk to Temple Square — not 
around, for it occupies ten acres of ground. And 
first here is Assembly Hall, a semi-gothic structure 
of gray granite, in the south-west corner. It was 
built from 1877 to 1882, and is 68 by 120 feet in 
dimensions, having a seating capacity of about 
2,500, and is used for religious services, including 
German and Scandinavian meetings, and also for 
public lectures and concerts for which the big 
Tabernacle would be larger than necessary. 

There is a significance in beehive sketches of 
the ceiling just above the pipe organ ; for the bee- 
hive is the State emblem, symbolizing industry. 
The early settlers established a form of State gov- 
ernment and sought admission into the Union under 

93 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

the name of the State of Deseret. ' Deseret ' is a 
word taken from the Book of Mormon, meaning 
in the language of the ancient people of this conti- 
nent, the "honey bee.'' "When, however, we were 
given territorial government, and subsequently 
State government, it was under the name of Utah, 
this title being derived from the name of the Ute 
Indian tribe. We retained the beehive as our 
State emblem and State seal, for it symbolizes the 
activity and industry which have been and are fun- 
damental in the structure and growth of our great 
western State.'' 

We go out of the north door of the Assembly 
Hall, facing directly the world-famed Tabernacle. 
The Tabernacle is an immense auditorium, elliptic 
in shape, and seats 8,000 people; it is 250 feet 
long by 150 feet wide and 80 feet in height. The 
self-supporting wooden roof is a remarkable work 
of engineering. It rests upon pillars or buttresses of 
red sandstone, which stand ten to twelve feet apart 
in the whole circumference of the building. The 
pillars support wooden arches 10 feet in thickness 
and spanning 150 feet. These arches of a lattice 
truss construction are put together with wooden 
pins, there being no nails or iron of any kind 
used in the framework. The building was erected 
from 1865 to 1867 and cost $300,000, exclusive 
of the organ. This being done before the rail- 
road reached Utah, all the manufactured material 
used in the construction had to be hauled with 
ox teams from the Missouri River. It was for 

94 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

this reason that wooden pins were used in place 
of nails. 

THE GREAT ORGAN 

In the west end of the Tabernacle is the great 
organ. It has been conceded by visiting musicians 
that this is the finest instrument in America, if not 
in the world. It was constructed over thirty years 
ago, entirely by Utah artisans and mostly from 
native materials. The front towers have an altitude 
of 48 feet, and the dimensions of the organ are 
30 by 33 feet; it has 110 stops and accessories 
and contains a total of over 5,000 pipes, ranging 
in length from one-fourth inch to 32 feet. It 
comprises five complete organs — solo, swell, great, 
choir, and pedal; in other words, four keyboards 
in addition to the pedals. It is capable of thou- 
sands upon thousands of tonal varieties. The 
different varieties of tone embodied in this noble 
instrument represent the instruments of an orchestra, 
military band and choir, as well as the deep and 
sonorous stops for which the organ is famed. There 
is no color, shade or tint of tone that can not be pro- 
duced from it. The action is the Kimball duplex 
pneumatic. The organ is blown by a 10-horsepower 
electric motor and two gangs of feeders furnish 
5,000 cubic feet of air a minute when it is being 
played full. The organist is seated 20 feet from the 
instrument, which places him well among the choir. 
Undoubtedly the organ owes much to the marvel- 
ous accoustics of the Tabernacle; but, even with 

95 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

this allowance made, it is said to be the most 
perfect instrument of its kind in existence. 

THE TABERNACLE CHOIR 

This famous body of singers, known generally as 
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, was organized by 
Brigham Young in the early days of the State. The 
present mammoth organization of 500 enrolled 
singers, the largest regular church choir in the 
world, dates back to 1890. 

THE TEMPLE 

Four days after the arrival of the pioneers in this 
valley, on July 28, 1847, President Brigham Young, 
while walking over the ground with his associates, 
suddenly stopped and, striking the point of his cane 
into the soil, exclaimed, "Here we will build the 
Temple of our God." One of his companions, 
the late President Wilford Woodruff, drove a small 
stake into the hole made by President Youngs 
cane, and later, when the ground for the building 
was surveyed, the stake was in the center of the 
plot laid out as the spot on which the Temple should 
be reared. 

At the general conference held in April, 1851, 
the formal proposition to build the Temple was 
made to the people and was unanimously adopted. 
Nearly two years later, on February 14, 1853, the 

96 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

site for the structure was surveyed, the block was 
solemnly dedicated, and ground was broken for 
the foundation of the Temple. Actual work on the 
structure began in 1853; it was completed and dedi- 
cated in 1893, its construction covering a period 
of forty years; and its cost in money and labor was 
not less than $4,000,000. The building of this 
Temple was one of the objects of the people in com- 
ing to this country. To "erect a Temple to their 
God" in the great western wilderness was one of the 
prime purposes of the sacrifices which were so 
patiently borne by that people in crossing the great 
desert and pitching their tents upon this then barren 
soil. The story of that struggle in the face of 
appalling obstacles partakes of the heroic. Nothing 
less than the fervid spirit of religious exaltation 
reduced to a working basis could have accomplished 
the miracle. The little settlement was only six 
years old when the work began; the stone to be 
quarried was a veritable mountain of granite at 
the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canon, 20 miles 
away ; horses and oxen were few, and the prepara- 
tion and harvesting of crops were vital facts; the 
rude roads were well-nigh impassable for heavily- 
laden teams, and had constantly to be rebuilt ; the 
way led across level plain, up high hills and across 
deep ravines; the oxen and horses were old and 
decrepit, and the blocks of granite were so large 
that four yoke of oxen were required to haul each 
one the 20 miles to town — and four days were 
consumed in transit! They built laboriously a 

97 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

canal from Big Cottonwood River beyond the 
mouth of the canon, expending thousands of dollars 
and two years' labor, but no boat was ever laden 
with stone for Zion — the bed of the ditch was 
loam, and when the water was turned on, it perco- 
lated through the treacherous soil as if it had been 
a sieve! In 1864, seven years after the first canal 
had been abandoned, they started another, some 
distance farther down; but the railroad arrived at 
Little Cottonwood Canon and the construction of 
the second canal was abandoned. Every stone was 
marked and numbered, and was put in place with- 
out difficulty. The process of loading the wagons 
was an interesting one. ' As we had no mechanical 
lifting apparatus, the large blocks had to be got on 
the wagons as best they could, and it became a 
serious question. Finally, however, the plan was 
adopted of digging a trench large enough for a 
wagon to pass through, so that the bed of the 
wagon would come even with the ground where 
the rock was lying, and then with a lot of men with 
lever stakes, and skids, and rollers, the stone was 
lifted and pried over onto the wagon, and the oxen 
started off with their load." When the railroad 
arrived, about the year 1873, lifting derricks also 
came, and the troubles were all over. The road 
was a narrow-gauge affair, built from Sandy on the 
main line of the old Utah Southern. In the mean- 
time, too, the Emma mine had opened over the 
Little Cottonwood Mountain, the line was con- 
tinued to Alta, and traffic from the canon became 

98 



, SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

lively. One of that hardy band gives a vivid 
picture of the hardships endured : We all 

worked some at the quarries. It was hard work, 
but I did mostly team driving. I remember that 
the worst kinds of hardships were the portion of 
those days, and the workers in the stone quarries 
shared them in common with the others. For 
three days at a time I have known them to be 
without a scrap of anything to eat except salt. We 
would eat the salt and drink water, and survived in 
this way. I hardly know how we ever got through, 
but God Almighty was with us, or we should 
surely have perished." 

On April 6, 1853, the twenty-third anniversary 
of the church, work had advanced sufficiently to 
allow the laying of the corner-stones, and this 
ceremony was performed by the full hierarchy of 
the church. The foundation was commenced 
June 16, 1853, and finished July 23, 1855. The 
capstone of the Temple was laid April 6, 1892, with 
impressive services and in the presence of the 
largest assemblage ever gathered in Utah. Imme- 
diately after these ceremonies, the work of sur- 
mounting the capstone with the figure representing 
the angel Moroni was proceeded with. This figure 
is of gigantic proportions, being twelve feet five and 
a half inches in height. The idea conveyed by the 
statue is that of a herald, or messenger, in the act 
of blowing a trumpet, an embodiment of the fact of 
Moroni bringing the Gospel to the earth in this 
latter day dispensation. The figure is admirably 

99 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

proportioned and its poise is graceful. It is made 
of hammered copper, gilded with pure gold-leaf, 
and surmounting its crown is an incandescent lamp 
of one hundred candle-power. The placing of the 
ornamental spires on the other towers was con- 
tinued till all were in place, each being provided 
with electric lights ; the tower walls were washed, 
painted, and received the finishing touches, and 
gradually the scaffolding was removed, leaving the 
building, so far as the exterior was concerned, 
completed, and with nothing to mar the sight and 
study of its magnificent beauty. It was not com- 
pleted until 1893, just forty years after it was 
commenced. Of course there were intervals when 
work had to be suspended, owing to the poverty of 
the people and other difficulties that confronted 
them in the early days. The building cost in all 
about $4,000,000 and, since its dedication on 
April 6, 1893, no visitors have been admitted. 
The Temple is 186^ feet long by 99 feet wide, 
its greatest height being 222 feet to the top of the 
figure which surmounts the central eastern tower. 
Less than six years after the first pioneers found 
here a desolate, sagebrush wilderness they laid 
the foundation walls, 16 feet wide and 8 feet 
deep, while above ground the walls vary in thick- 
ness from 6 to 9 feet ; the building covers an 
area of 21,850 feet. There are six towers, three 
on the east and three on the west end of the 
structure. Other measurements may be sum- 
marized as follows : 

ioo 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 



Feet 

Height of central east tower to end of brick work____ 210 

" " top of spires 222! 

west " end of brick work 204 

" " top of spires 219 

side east " end of brick work 188 

' top of spires 200 

" west " end of brick work 182 

" " top of spires 194 

walls to top of rock work 1 6/5 

Thickness of walls at bottom 9 

' top 6 

"buttresses 7 

Surely nothing which could contribute to its sta- 
bility, convenience, comfort, and elegance has been 
neglected. As an instance of the first-named quality 
may be mentioned the circular stairways in each 
corner tower, extending from the basement to the 
very top; the steps, upwards of two hundred in 
number, are all of solid granite cut by hand, built 
into the massive walls and the gigantic newel posts 
of solid masonry; the only woodwork is a wain- 
scoting of heavy oak, crowned with molding and 
relieved by hand rail; the whole giving an impression 
of the time-defying castles of the Middle Ages, built 
to stand, without crack or quiver, for a thousand 
years. How successfully convenience has been 
sought may be understood from the fact that the 
building is completely fitted up for lighting by 
electricity in every room and corridor and on every 
floor of the interior as well as on the spires of all 
the towers; that it has its own electric light plant, 
located at the west end of the basement of the 
main building, in the machinery room, where four 



101 




+-> 

4-3 

CO 

* — I 

a 






o 

s 

o 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

engines and four dynamos are placed with a 
capacity of 2,000 lights, as well as the neces- 
sary pumps, boilers, and motive power for the two 
handsomely finished elevators which operate in the 
west central tower. 

Comfort is secured by a thorough system of hot- 
water heating, already in full operation and a pro- 
nounced success. The vast building in all its parts 
can be maintained at an equable, balmy, healthful 
temperature, without undue heat at any point 
or an insufficient degree at another. The main 
pipe, 12 inches, connects with the boilers, 330 
feet distant. The main is not buried in the earth 
but is laid in a stone-lined tunnel, so that it can 
be reached at any time. Equally effective are 
the arrangements for cooling the building during the 
warm season. Ventilation is secured by pushing 
electric buttons, which throw open transoms in the 
various rooms and start sixteen fans, each of one- 
half horse-power. Absolutely fireproof as the building 
is, it has nevertheless been provided on each floor 
with adequate protection in case the unexpected, 
one might almost say the impossible, should happen. 
A standpipe and fire hose are readily available, and 
at the top of the southwest tower is a reserve tank 
with a capacity of 7,000 gallons of water. 

The marble tiled baptismal room in the basement 
is grand and impressive in all of its appointments. 
The capacious bronze font rests upon the backs of 
twelve life-sized bronzed oxen, a reminder of a like 
feature in the House of Solomon, which "stood upon 

103 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three 
looking toward the west, three looking toward the 
south, and three looking toward the east, and the 
sea was set above them, and all their hinder parts 
were inward." This large room has a pavement and 
base of fine white marble. A smaller room on an 
upper floor, resplendent in blue and gold, is paved 
with an artistically-designed native wood mosaic, the 
blocks being no more than an inch square and finely 
polished. White and gold are the prevailing colors 
throughout, and harmonious tints, judiciously dis- 
tributed, remove every suggestion of too dazzling 
brightness. Notably is this the case in the overhead 
and side decorations of a large high room on the 
north side, which is exquisitely chaste, harmonious 
and natural in color as well as in every appoint- 
ment So it goes from foundation to summit — 
everywhere are symmetry, solidity, richness, and 
purity. We pause a moment to examine in various 
corridors, the permanent wash basins, made of solid, 
rare and delicately-tinted onyx, with plumbing fix- 
tures throughout of appropriate finish, and note as 
an evidence of the thorough attention that has been 
paid to detail, that even the door and window hard- 
ware has been made to order expressly for the build- 
ing ; the beehive ornaments the door knobs and 
with the design of the clasped hands is the motto — 
"Holiness to the Lord." In the basement these fixtures 
(including all locks, hinges, bolts, etc.) are of brass ; 
on the first floor they are of plated gold ; on the 
second of plated silver ; and above that and in the 

104 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

smaller rooms of old bronze. There are four floors 
counting the basement, and each one, excepting the 
top, is divided into rooms of varying sizes. This 
upper, or assembly, room occupies the whole extent 
of the building, except the towers; being 120 feet 
long, 80 feet wide and 36 feet high, with a seating 
capacity, including the gallery, of nearly 3,000 per- 
sons. The gallery is of graceful sweep, it is railed 
with bronze, and is reached with circular stairways 
in each of the four towers. The elevated stands for 
the priesthood at either end, the choice hand-carved 
decorations of dais and balcony, the broad audito- 
rium, the artistically-paneled ceiling and frescoed 
frieze, with innumerable permanent lights mingled 
in the cornice, and five dependent chandeliers — all 
combine in presenting a scene which is equally 
imposing by day or by night. 

After all has been said concerning Salt Lake 
and the beauty of her environs, the truth remains 
that Saltair is the prime attraction for every man, 
woman, and child, who may stop for a month, a 
week, or a day in the city. To bathe in water 
wherein you can not sink is a novel experience not 
found elsewhere in the world — save the Dead Sea 
in Palestine. According to analysis the water of the 
Great Salt Lake gives nearly 14 per cent of solid 
matter, or, in other words, seven pounds of lake 
water yields one pound of salt, 85 per cent of which 
is common salt, A later analysis shows that the 
water contains 18 per cent of solid matter. The 
sulphates are formed by the inflowing of waters 

io 5 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

from the many sulphur springs which empty into 
the lake. The water of Great Salt Lake is free from 
odor, its specific gravity is 1.107 distilled water. It 
contains nearly twent3'-five ounces avoirdupois of 
saline matter to each imperial gallon held in solu- 
tion. The dry salt in every 100 grains contains: 

Common Salt 85.089 

Lime Carbonate .117 

Lime Sulphate .531 

Epsom Salts 8.145 

Chloride of Magnesia 6.118 

Total 100000 

Salt Lake is not a sullen, listless sheet of water, 
beating idly on the shores, barren and repellent; but, 
on the contrary, it is as beautiful a piece of marine 
view as can be found anywhere. The waves are a 
bright blue or green, and as they dance on its sur- 
face it would be hard to tell which color prevails. 
The water supports no life. Its constant sinking 
and rising is only one of its many curious phases. 
The sensation upon entering the water is novel 
and congenial. In the long sunny days of June, 
July, August, and September the water becomes 
warm, much warmer than the ocean. Seven islands 
grace the lake; they are Antelope and Stansbury, 
the two largest, one 18 the other 19 miles in length; 
Carrington, with its satellite, Hat Island, just beyond 
Stansbury; Fremont's, the first island visited by Fre- 
mont and Carson, is relieved against the steep bald 
hills of Promontory Range; Strongs Knob shows to 
westward; and Gunnison's, loveliest of them all, far 
to the north. Vista beyond vista, snow covered 

106 



SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

mountains bound the view. From the balcony of 
Saltair, where we sit, full in sight lies the whole 
of the vast, briny deep, the mysterious inland sea 
so well called the "dead," displayed in its whole 
length and breadth, its surface gleaming like a mir- 
ror of polished steel, and its more distant islands 
and shores seeming to float in air, seen through the 
waving undulations of the summer mirage. 

SALTAIR 

Saltair Beach is an amusement and bathing 
resort on the shore of Great Salt Lake, 1 3 miles 
from Salt Lake City. It is reached by a thirty-minute 
ride on the Salt Lake & Los Angeles Railroad, 
especially well equipped for transporting the im- 
mense crowds which go there every day during the 
summer season. 

The aggregation of buildings stands on piles 
4,000 feet from shore, grouped symmetrically with 
a large central structure and connected with tapering 
piers, the whole forming an immense perfect cres- 
cent whose ends curve toward the lake. It is said 
to be the largest bathing pavilion in the world, and 
its beauty is admitted by everybody. Design is 
Moorish; length 1,200 feet, widest part 360 feet, 
main tower rising 130 feet above the surface of the 
water. 

Trains reach it over a bridge of piling and pas- 
sengers are landed at the main entrance. The main 
floors of the buildings are devoted to luncheon and 

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SALT LAKE CITY AND ITS TEMPLE 

refreshment rooms, bowling, roller skating, target 
shooting, merry-go-rounds, moving pictures, swings, 
see-saws, and the facilities for bathers which 
include nearly a thousand dressing-rooms with wash- 
stands, fresh-water shower baths, etc. The upper 
story of the immense central pavilion is the striking 
feature of the place, having a floor of polished oak 
140 by 250 feet, unobstructed by pillar or post. 
The roof — just such a one as on the famous Taber- 
nacle in Salt Lake City, only larger in every direc- 
tion — is supported by an arch of steel beams. One 
thousand couples may dance at one time in this great 
hall without crowding. 

Saltair has its own electric light plant, and at 
night, when its 1,250 incandescent and forty arc 
lights are turned on and the great tower is aflame 
with its 2,000 candle-power lights, the effect is 
distinctly visible from the higher portions of Salt 
Lake City. 

The resort, which cost $350,000, is conducted 
by the Mormon Church, great care being taken to 
keep it up to a high standard of respectability. 
During the bathing season quite 300,000 persons 
visit Saltair. It is a common ground, and good 
fellowship is the rule, for there is plenty of room for 
all. Every tourist who visits Salt Lake City visits 
Saltair. 



iog 



OGDEN CANON 

It is one of the most unexpected things about the 
Wahsatch canons — their great diversity of scenery. 
No two are alike. Take, for instance, the comple- 
mentary effect of Echo, with its bare, gaunt rocks, 
its stertile sublimity, as contrasted with the masses of 
foliage that line the stream, and clothe the precipi- 
tous sides of Weber, and the force of this remark will 
be realized. And this will be found the case with all 
the canons of the Wahsatch; each has some domi- 
nant characteristic that gives it individuality. Either 
it is the class of foliage, the coloring of its rock walls, 
the nature of its streams, or something that leaves a 
decided impression different from the one last received. 
In this respect Ogden Canon is not a whit behind its 
neighbors; it stands apart and asserts itself. It is 
Ogden Canon, and no other canon — Odgen Canon, 
with a set of scenes contributing an ample share to 
that volume of scenic impressions written upon the 
mind of the traveler who uses his powers of observa- 
tion during a trip over the Union Pacific, the great 
transcontinental line. 

Properly we ought to include the Ogden River in 
our description, even after it leaves the mouth of the 
canon, for it will remain in the memory as a part of 
the canon scenery — the river the child of the canon. 
If one is desirous of seeing a number of most beauti- 
ful combinations of valley, stream, and mountain, let 

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OGDEN CANON 



him or her spend a few hours in wandering along the 
banks of Ogden River. The woodland streams of the 
East, no doubt, are as attractive in themselves; but 
where is one with such a magnificent panorama of 
beetling heights showing over the tree-tops and 
between the trunks, to lend it additional beauty and 
to stamp it with the elements of grandeur as well as 
those of grace? 

This Ogden stream is not to be surpassed in pic- 
turesqueness. An artist might find there a whole sum- 
mer's sketching. It combines the charm of the 
Eastern forest stream with that of the mountain tor- 
rent. Passing along alternately in glassy reaches, or 
murmuring among the boulders, its every turn is an 
attractive picture. Everyone, even the most prosaic 
man or woman, must stop to admire as does the 
artist. 

A noted American painter (who has his studio in 
New York City) has painted six large pictures from 
the locality, and not one of the sketches was made 
from a spot more than fifteen minutes' walk from the 
Union Pacific Railroad depot. 

A beautiful boulevard leads from the city of 
Ogden through an opening in the mountains to the 
east. This opening connects the valley of the Great 
Salt Lake with the Alpine Mesa, 15 miles distant, 
and is an outlet for the swift river from which Ogden 
derives its name. 

The boulevard, hugging the mountain side along 
the Ogden River banks as it does, is one one of the 
most delightful automobile drives in all the West. 

IJ 3 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



Electric street cars leave the Union Depot every 
twenty minutes for this unrivaled majestic scenery. 

During the summer seasons, Ogden Canon might 
well be termed a "Tented City." Visitors flock 
here from all quarters of the country, seeking the 
cool mountain retreats, where camping, fishing, hunt- 
ing, boating, and other outdoor amusements may be 
found. Nicely furnished tent cottages may be rented 
by the week, month, or season at reasonable rates. 

Chief among the canon resorts are the following: 



Rock Ridge 6 mil 



miles 



Hermitage ' 

Idlewild 8 i " 

Oaks Q 2 

These distances are from the Union Depot. 

The hotels at these points furnish every luxury, 
while the magnificent cafes are famed the country 
over for their trout and chicken dinners. 

At the entrance to the canon, 3J miles distant 
from the heart of the city, are the Ogden Canon 
Hot Springs. These springs are improved by hotel, 
sanatorium and bath houses. They possess reme- 
dial virtues of the highest order, and have effected 
many phenomenal cures, the curative properties of 
the water equaling that of the far-famed Arkansas 

Hot Springs. 

The entrance of Ogden Canon, or "mouth," as it 
is called in the western parlance, is plainly seen 
from the depot, with the cliffs beyond, that excite so 
much admiration from all tourists. Three miles from 
the town, just before entering between the rocky 

114 



OGDEN CANON 



heights, we cross over a slight rise in the road, 
and get that much vaunted bench view of which all 
Ogdenites are so proud. It is a striking scene, and 
perhaps the most extensive and diverse piece of 
landscape to be seen on the entire trip across the 
continent. To go into detail would be tedious. 
Portions of the Wahsatch, the Ogumale, the Malad, 
the Grantsville, and other mountains are included 
in the view. The valley of Ogden, with its two 
rivers, the Ogden and Weber, and the city itself 
embowered in foliage, makes up the middle distance 
and the foreground; the Great Salt Lake, with its 
many islands, stretches along the horizon, its waters 
appearing of the deepest ultramarine blue in the 
early morning, and undergoing all the changes 
of the chameleon ere the sun falls behind the purple 
ranges of western mountains. Well may the people 
of Ogden be proud of that view. The longer we 
look upon its wonderful features, the more we are 
entranced, and if we linger until sunset and see the 
god of day bathe them all in glowing and beauteous 
colors, make the distant lake appear of be a vast 
reservoir of molten gold, and the mountain peaks 
glow like red-hot iron ready for the forge of Cyclops, 
fill all the vast space with such scarlets and purples 
as are never seen on the eastern seaboard, we will 
cease wondering why Utah is spoken of as a place 
of magic colors. 

The first point of interest in the canon is The 
Narrows, and these extend for about two miles up. 
There must have been a terrible commotion in this 

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OGDEN CANON 



part of the Wahsatch at some time; the rock strata 
is tilted, curved, and twisted in all conceivable 
shapes. The stream comes roaring down over the 
fallen masses, and on a stormy day when the clouds 
are caught on the ragged mountain peaks above, it is 
a scene of startling wildness. 

At the top of "The Narrows" there is an old saw- 
mill, adding much to the picturesqueness of the place, 
and from the hillside above, a glimpse of the lake 
with its shining levels may be caught between the 
dark frowning walls. "Adam's Fall'' is the name 
given to a pretty sheet of tumbling water that comes 
in on the right hand of the road from what is known 
as Cold Water Canon. In general, the Utah Moun- 
tains are somewhat devoid of waterfall, but this one 
is very pretty indeed. The surrounding rocks and 
trees form a shady bower, where the visitor can rest 
and dream to the ever pleasant sound of softly 
exploding foam bubbles. There is another fall 
not far from this one, but it is in a side glen called 
Waterfall Canon; however, a trail leads from Ogden 
Canon to it, so the visitor, if he is so inclined, can see 

the spot on his return trip. 

From The Narrows, for at least ten miles, there is 
a constant change in the scenery, partly rural, partly 
wild. The South Fork, Wheeler's Creek, the North 
Fork, and other places of interest are passed. 
Wheeler's, Winslow's, and Fry's groves contribute 
much to the general beauty. Eight miles from the 
mouth the canon opens out into a valley in which 
are situated the typical little Mormon settlements of 

117 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Huntsville and Eden. Above this the canon again 
forms, and is known as the Upper South Fork. All 
through this part there are cattle and horse ranches, 
and it will be noticed that oats of the very finest 
quality are raised in these high mountain localities. 




Power Site in the Wind River Mountains, no Miles 
North of Rock Springs, Wyoming 



IlS 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

Where in confusion canons and mountains and 
swift-running rivers with painted banks abound, 
and elk and deer, buffalo and bear range through the 
wilds unterrified by man and gun, and tall, straight 
pines in almost unbroken forests, plant their feet in a 
tangle of down-timber that centuries were required to 
produce; where in the earth there are vents through 
which roar and rush at exact intervals columns of 
boiling water, sometimes more than two hundred 
feet high, or in which painted mud blubbers and 
spurts; where pools by thousands at scalding heat 
boil and murmur; where under ones feet is felt the 
hollow of the earth and through hundreds of holes 
of unfathomable depth come deep growls of Nature 
in her confinement; where dyes have been daubed 
in delirium on hillsides and river's brink; where a, 
canon gashes the earth thousands of feet through 
colors so vivid and varied that no record can write 
them down; where one of the highest navigable 
lakes in the world washes the feet of mountains that 
hold aloft the snows through every month of the 
year; where the supernal and the infernal are blended 
in a harmony that only Infinitude can produce, 
and every miracle of Creation has been worked; 
where one can be lost in a wilderness as long as he 
will and come face to face with almost every form 
of creative eccentricity — there, is Geyserland. 

119 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



"You go to Ogden by the Union Pacific and 
turn to the right," as Dumont Smith puts it, 
and this fairly represents the easy accessibility of this 
Wonderland. The trip is north from Ogden through 
Pocatello to Yellowstone, Montana, only 19 miles 
from the Fountain Hotel, and you are at the 
portal of the Park without an hours' discomfort or 
delay. From here the first stage of the journey is 
made by coach; it is the beginning of the 158-mile 
swing around the circle and back to Yellowstone. 
The stage coach, the old-fashioned one with the lofty 
seat for the driver and the boot and the thorough- 
brace, the rocking-cradle vehicle that served so well 
when civilization was beating its way westward fifty 
years ago, holds the first right-of-way through the 
Park. Driven from use almost everywhere else by 
the iron horse, it has found safe refuge there, and 
neither the railways nor the automobiles can enter to 
oppose it. It is not far to this Wonderland — certainly 
not far over the Union Pacific for the visitor who 
finds himself in Omaha, Kansas City, Denver, or Salt 
Lake. It is Fairyland and Wonderland, and a play- 
ground, so strangely beautiful that the world has not 
its equal, and every "good" American should go 
there this summer instead of pouring more money 
into the worn-out show places of Europe. 

WONDERLAND 

It is probable that John Colter, a member of the 
Lewis and Clark expedition, was the first white man 
to pass through this Wonderland, in 1807; in 1871, 

120 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

Hayden and a corps of United States Engineers 
explored the region, and upon their report of its mar- 
vels, in 1872, Congress withdrew from the public 
domain an area of 3,344 square miles, a tract 
55 by 65 miles, dedicating and setting it apart as 
a "public park or pleasure-ground for the benefit 
and enjoyment of the people/' 

And a pleasure-ground it is and ever will be. 
Around it are mountain ranges with peaks 14,000 
feet high, and within it are exhibitions of Nature's 
freaks and moods such as no other land contains and 
no pen or tongue can fitly describe. The average 
elevation of the Park is 8,000 feet above sea level. 

Here, amid the grandeur of Alpine scenery, tinted 
and splashed with colors that would serve the 
rainbow, are geysers spouting, at precise intervals, 
scalding water skyward; terrace-building fountains; 
pools of steaming clay; everlasting springs iced in 
earth's depths, or boiling over her furnaces; a moun- 
tain of glass; the lofty forest-fringed Yellowstone Lake 
— Nature's hand mirror for the clouds and peaks — 
romantic vales and shaded glens; that master crea- 
tion, the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, and 
almost all else that prodigal creative genius could 
furnish to fill the land with wonders. 

The Park is full of inns — " they happen along 
at the end of each day's drive — roomy structures 
full of comfort and good cheer, generous lobbies 
and old-fashioned fire places, dainty bed rooms 
and a surprisingly good cuisine. As everybody 
knows the last surviving remnant of deer, once 

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

great herds of game, finds a safe home in Geyserland 
— and the deer and bear come to supper every 
night at the Inn!" 

THE GEYSERS 

The fame of this mysterious, one might almost 
say truthfully supernatural, region has attracted 
men of science, travelers, and pleasure seekers 
from all over Europe, for the simple reason that 
there is nothing like it elsewhere in the world — 
nothing half so wonderful as this spot where 
Nature has lavished her gifts with prodigal hand — a 
charming wilderness of wild woodland, crystal 
rivers, gorgeous canons, and sparkling cascades' 
and, above and beyond all, the geysers, those 
weird, strange, startling nature miracles. And yet, 
taken as a whole, the scenery of the Park is serene, 
restful, satisfying, for, hemmed in by the solemn 
guard of mountain sentinels as it is, there is a soft- 
ness in coloring and a gentle undulation in form 
which mitigate the massive sternness of the forbid- 
ding peaks and walls and leaves upon this play- 
ground that tender play of light and color which in 
the Alps they call the ' afterglow." But the fear- 
ful beauty and majesty of those geysers- — they 
must be seen to be appreciated and once seen the 
memory and mystery of them will linger to the end 
of the longest life. They are as different as geysers 
can be. There are dead geysers — -dead from bursted 
throats — mere broiling pools now — shaped to 
resemble a variety of familiar things, with depths 

123 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

that the eye can not sound, and colors — blues, greens, 
purples, reds — down their deep sides and in the 
wonderful tracery about their rims, so blended, so 
beautiful that one may well believe that all the 
paints on the pallette of the Master were commingled 
in their decoration. 

One blubbers and gurgles and grumbles awhile, 
and then, with an angry roar, lifts a great column of 
mud into the air. Another steams and growls 
through an orifice hundreds of feet wide in seem- 
ing angry spite that years ago it blew out its throat 
and ceased to gush forever — but the geysers that 
most attract are the regular-timed spouting wonders — 
the Giant and Giantess, Old Faithful, the Grand, the 
Fountain, the Castle and others whose names mark 
the geography of the Park 

GEYSER SOURCES 

A brief scientific excursion may be beneficial — 
Just to act as a curb on poetic flights. 

Early in the last century the attention of scien- 
tific men was attracted to Iceland by stories of the 
wonderful fountains of steam and hot water found in 
that country, and such was the interest which these 
unique curiosities of Nature aroused throughout 
Europe that several expeditions were sent to Iceland 
to study the phenomena. To these fountains the 
Icelanders gave the name of geysers, the term being 
derived from the verb geysa, signifying "to gush." 

A geyser may be defined as a hot spring which 
intermittently ejects a column of boiling water and 

124 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

steam. However, no sharp line of distinction can be 
drawn, since in all geyser regions there is every grada- 
tion, from the quiet pool of warm water to a boiling, 
steaming spring which is intermittently agitated, and 
from the latter to a full-fledged spouting geyser. 

In looking at the distribution of geysers in various 
parts of the world one is quickly impressed with their 
great rarity. Hot springs abound in many countries, 
but boiling springs are characteristic only of regions 
of recent (that is geologically recent) volcanic 
activity; it is only in such regions that geysers 
occur. Until late in the last century Iceland was the 
only land where geysers had been found. Less than 
sixty years ago they were discovered in considerable 
numbers in New Zealand, and since then a few 
others have been reported from other parts of the 
world. The Geyserland of the world is undoubtedly, 
however, the Yellowstone National Park. 

Walter Harvey Weed of the United States 
Geological Survey, in an interesting paper on 
geysers, says : 

'What is the source and character of the geyser 
waters? It has been plainly indicated that, in the 
fields described, the vents are always situated along 
lines of drainage, on the shores of lakes, or under 
conditions where ordinary springs of meteoric water 
would naturally occur. 

'That the geyser waters are surface waters which 
have percolated through the porous lavas, and have 
been heated by encountering great quantities of 
steam and gases rising from the hot rocks below, 

125 



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Old Faithful Geyser Yellowstone National Park 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

there is no reasonable doubt. The proximity of 
ordinary cold springs and those of boiling hot water 
lends support to this view. 

'These hot waters, traversing the rocks in irregular 
fissures, readily dissolve out the more soluble constit- 
uents of the rocks, the amount and the character of 
the salts present varying somewhat with the nature 
and amount of gases held in the waters. Chemical 
analyses of geyser waters from the three regions des- 
cribed show no greater variation than those from 
different vents in any one of these regions. 

SOURCE OF HEAT 

'That the source of the steam is the still hot lavas 
below, and is in some way connected with volcanic 
action, is so evident from the facts that no other 
conclusion is possible. 

"In the Yellowstone there are no active volcanoes, 
and none of even geologically recent activity. The 
lavas that fill the ancient mountain-encircled basin 
of the Park are scored by glaciers and deeply cut by 
running water, and the old volcanoes from which 
the lavas were, in part at least, outpoured, show no 
signs of having been active since Tertiary times. 
Yet, in this region, the expenditure of heat by the hot 
springs, geysers, and steam vents would undoubtedly 
keep a moderate-sized volcano in a very active state, 
if concentrated. 

THEORIES OF GEYSER ACTION 

'The intermittent spouting of geysers was long a 
riddle to scientific men, for although several theories 

127. 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



seemed each to offer a satisfactory explanation of 
the eruptions of Geyser, they supposed conditions 
unlikely to occur in many vents. The investiga- 
tions of Bunsen, and of Descloizeaux, who spent 
two weeks studying the Iceland fountains, resulted 
in the announcement of a theory of geyser action 
which, with slight modifications, has satisfied all 
requirements, and is today generally accepted as 
the true explanation of the action of these natural 
steam engines. This theory, which bears the name 
of the illustrious Bunsen, depends on the well-known 
fact that the boiling point of water increases with 
the pressure and is, therefore, higher at the bottom of 
a tube of water than at the surface. The temperature 
of water heated in any vessel is generally equalized 
by convective currents, but in a long and narrow or an 
irregular tube this circulation is impeded, and while 
the water at the surface boils at 1 00 degrees centigrade 
(at sea level), ebullition in the lower part of the tube 
is only possible at a much higher temperature, 
owing to the weight of the water column above it. 
'The life history of a geyser varies, of course, for 
each one, but observations show that the following 
sequence of events often takes place. The hot 
vapors rising from unknown depths penetrate the 
rocks along planes of fracture and shrinking cracks, 
decomposing and softening the rock until the 
pressure of the steam and water is sufficient to force 
an opening to the surface. If this opening affords 
an easier exit for waters issuing at a higher level, the 
fissure is probably opened with a violent ejection of 

128 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

mud and debris; more often the process is a gradual 
one, accompanying the slow eating away of the rock 
walls along the fissure. The flowing waters slowly 
clear out the fissure, forming a tube that permits the 
freer escape of hot water and steam, while at the 
same time the waters change from a thick mud to a 
more or less clear fluid. The spring, at first a simple 
boiling mud hole, is now an intermittently boiling 
spring, which soon develops true geyser action. If 
the opening of the fissure affords a new outlet for 
the waters of some already existing geyser, these 
changes take place rapidly, and eruptions begin as 
soon as the pipe is sufficiently cleared to hold enough 
water. The bare rock about the vent or fissure is 
soon whitened by silica deposited by the hot waters. 
The sinter may form a mound about the expanded 
tube or basin, or, if the vent be small and spray is 
frequently ejected, it builds up the curious geyser 
cones so prominent in the Yellowstone. In certain 
cases the building up of these deposits may partially 
choke the geyser's throat, and cause a diminution 
of the geyser's energy, whose forces seek an easier 
outlet. In other cases, the eating out of new subter- 
ranean waterways deprives the geyser of its supply 
of heat, and the vent becomes either a tranquil lake 
or wholly extinct, while the pearly geyserite forming 
its cone disintegrates and crumbles into fine, shaly 
debris, resembling comminuted oyster shells. Thus 
there is a slow but continual change in progress at 
the geyser basins, in which old springs become 
extinct and new ones come into being and activity. 

129 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

'The interval between eruptions is manifestly 
dependent upon the two factors of heat and water 
supply- — variations in either or in both affecting the 
geyser period. It rarely happens that these factors 
are so constant that the geyser has a definite period. 
Even in the case of Old Faithful, the most reliable of 
all geysers, there are very considerable variations in 
the period, though the average is always constant 
from day to day." 

SOAPING GEYSERS 

Arnold Hogue, the well known geologist, says: 
Thermometers plunged into the basins show 
slightly varying temperatures, dependent upon their 
position in the basin. They indicate the existence 
of numerous currents, and a very unstable equilib- 
rium of the heated waters, which are liable, under 
slight changes, to burst forth with more or less 
violence. It is under these conditions that geyser 
action can be accelerated by artificial means. If, 
into one of these superheated basins, a handful of 
sinter pebbles be thrown, or the surface of the 
water be agitated by the rapid motion of a stick or 
cane, or even by lashing with a rope, a liberation of 
steam ensues. This is liable to be followed by a 
long boiling of the water in the pool, which in turn 
may lead to geyser-action. There is some reason to 
believe that, at least in one instance, an eruption has 
been brought about by a violent but temporary gust 
of wind, which either ruffled the water or disturbed 

130 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

the equilibrium of the pool, and changed, momentarily 
the atmospheric pressure. 

"If soap or lye is thrown into most of the small 
pools, a viscous fluid is formed; and viscosity is, I 
think, the principal cause in hastening geyser-action. 
Viscosity must tend to the retention of steam within 
the basin, and, as in the case of the superheated 
waters, where the temperature stands at or above the 
boiling-point, explosive liberation must follow. All 
alkaline solutions, whether in the laboratory or in 
Nature, exhibit, by reason of this viscosity, a tendency 
to bump and boil irregularly. Viscosity in these hot 
springs must also tend to the formation of bubbles 
and foam when the steam rises to the surface, and 
this in turn aids to bring about the explosive action, 
followed by a relief of pressure, and thus to hasten 
the final and more powerful display." 

THE GRAND CANON 

A gash in the earth 10 miles long and 1,200 feet 
deep; its awful depths stirred by the music of the 
rushing river; its great falls roaring and whispering 
every sound described in the swinging old rhyme, 
The Way the Waters Come Down at Ladore ;" its 
painted walls, lurid with every tint from the pallette 
of the Master, and all the blended colors of all the 
paint pots ever mixed by mortal or immortal hands ; 
its shadows, somber and gray ; its sun-gilded pinna- 
cles — who shall describe that ? 

What an awful, what a majestic, what an incom- 
parable wonder it is ! To see its cliffs of volcanic 

131 




Yellowstone Falls, showing Red Rock, Yellowstone National Park 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

glass, its gleaming water effects, its mountains of 
petrifactions, its hills of brimstone, its perpetually 
snow-crowned peaks, is to gaze on a spectacle of 
beauty and grandeur such as the world elsewhere 
can not produce. 

THE FALLS 

The canon and falls of the Yellowstone beggar 
description. They are twin wonders in a Wonder- 
land. 

Is there any other gorge as gorgeous as that 
canon — with such gaiety of coloring, with such 
delicate and lovely shades of yellows and reds, 
purples and pinks, greens and crimsons, all com- 
mingling in harmony from the green-fringed brink, 
down, down the craggy sides into somber depths 
where the writhing, gleaming ribbon of river 
thousands of feet below, plunges along on its 
winding way to the sea ? 

And the falls — the drapery of the canon, the 
two silvery curtains that hang at its head — a great 
river pouring over a precipice and falling in glassy 
sheets hundreds of feet, then ruffling and flouncing 
and festooning until lost in the rainbow-hued mist 
at the foot of chasm. 

See all this as thousands have and thousands 
will from Inspiration Point, a rocky balcony over 
the gorge, with the eagles' nests below you, or 
from Artists' Point on the other side, where 
Moran transferred the glories of canon and falls 
to canvas ; or see it from any of the other places 

T 1 •*> 

1 v).-> 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

where tourists love to linger and look, and you will 
see the most tremendous, stupendous, alluring and 
altogether splendid spectacle that Nature ever 
spread out for the wonder, amazement, and delight 
of mortal eyes. 





Excelsior Geyser, Yellowstone National Park 



•34 



FOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS 

As a general proposition a railroad is supposed 
to be built, from initial point to terminus, in as 
straight a line as possible — an air line or 'as the 
crow flies" — and for obvious reasons. In the early 
days of the Union Pacific there was more than 
one 'editorial railroad builder" who knew more 
about the crooked track of the road than its chief 
engineer. Montgomery Schuyler, in his breezy 
book "Out West," has stated the case emphatically 
and explicitly: 

'It is pleasant to know that the builders of the 
Union Pacific were by no means so black as they 
have been painted. Congressional investigation, 
instigated by a press which it must be owned has 
not in all the world its equal in a scent for scandal, 
has done a good deal of blackening. But the 
Oakes Ames monument, which it seems we passed 
in the night, well deserves salutation. One ancient 
scandal, that the road was bent and even zigzagged, 
to draw large subsidies per mile where construc- 
tion was easy, has lately been effectually dispelled. 
The Union Pacific has undertaken, with its modern 
appliances and its modern affluence of means, to 
straighten its road and ease its curves and its 
grades all along the line. Such things are neces- 
sary and inevitable, of course, in the country in 
which the railroad is the pioneer road, and better- 
ments are left to be paid for out of earnings. 
Well, the fact is that the modern engineers with 

i35 



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their new lights and their new means have man- 
aged in this country here to save just four miles 
in four hundred over the engineers of the sixties, 
a fact which ought to excite much blushing in 
many editorial rooms." 

But Mr. Schuyler's statement does not convey 
the whole truth. 

When the old Union Pacific was built the dis- 
tance from Omaha to Ogden over its tracks was 
1,042 miles; when the Harriman improvements were 
completed the distance was 1,000. The Sherman 
Hill line increased the distance three miles; but 
the other changes reduced it, leaving the net 
reduction forty-two miles. 

It required a superior skill in engineering to 
cut off these forty-two miles. The original engi- 
neers had done their work so well that it took 
thirty-five years to find a way to reduce the dis- 
tance, and the best engineers of the world have 
admitted long ago, and events have justified their 
admission, that it will not ever be possible to find 
a way to improve on the route. The line they ran 
was the best that could be run. Mr. Harriman 
himself, in an address before the Omaha Field 
Club, paid a stout tribute to these old pioneer 
engineers when he said: 

"After all these years of experimenting and 
investigating it has been found impossible to run 
a more direct general line of survey from Omaha 
to Ogden than the original engineers of the Union 
Pacific drew. Their work can not be improved on." 

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The four greatest achievements of the new 
Union Pacific are these: 

Sherman Hill tunnel, 1,800 feet through solid 
granite, and the Sherman Hill line 158 miles long, 
costing approximately $6,000,000. 

Aspen tunnel, 5,900 feet long, and Aspen cut- 
off, twenty-two miles long, the two, with other 
western cut-offs, saving thirty miles in distance, 
costing approximately $12,000,000. 

The Great Salt Lake cut-off across Great Salt 
Lake, 102.5 miles long, cutting off forty-three miles 
of the distance between Ogden and San Francisco, 
costing $6,000,000. 

The Lane cut-off, eleven miles long, saving 
nine and one-half miles, costing $3,000,000. 

LANE CUT-OFF 

The construction of the Lane cut-off, a few 
miles west of Omaha, did not penetrate any gran- 
ite mountains, nor involve any deep and lengthy 
tunnels, but it did involve some tremendous fills 
and cuts and accomplished a purpose of immense 
importance. But the most remarkable feature of it 
is that it cuts off in distance nearly as much as its 
actual length and, though 11.64 miles long, it cost 
$3,000,000. To be exact, it saved 8.94 miles on 
a distance of 20.58 miles between connecting 
points on the old main line. 

The excavation of this cut-off was entirely in 
earth. It involved the removal of nearly 3,500,000 

139 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

cubic yards of dirt. Every particle of this 
dirt was utilized in the formation of embank- 
ments and about 4,000,000 cubic yards of these 
embankments were built. They were necessary 
to form crossings over the deep, wide valleys. 
The roadway proper in excavation has one and 
one-half to one side slopes and a maximum width 
of thirty feet; the embankments have a minimum 
width of thirty-five feet and one and one-half to 
one side slopes. The tracks, like others of the 
Union Pacific, are laid with ninety-pound steel 
rails on tie plates, with treated ties of Oregon and 
southern pine. 

To give some idea of the herculean task con- 
fronting the builders of this cut-off it is well to 
note that at one place there is a cut with a depth 
of 85.5 feet, a width of 437 feet, and a total 
length of 5,200 feet. 

SHERMAN HILL 

Sherman Hill and Dale Creek bridge — those 
were names to conjure with in the days of the old 
Union Pacific. But those landmarks of a frontier 
railroad are gone. Yesterday you were dragged 
with nerve-racking anxiety over a bridge 600 feet 
long and 135 feet high. Today you glide smoothly 
over embankments which experts pronounce the 
most remarkable in the world. The roadbed is as 
solid as rock and as smooth as a floor. You pass 
over Sherman Hill with the same easy comfort 

140 



FOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS 

that you skirt the level, sweeping prairies of 
Nebraska. Instead of mounting the summit of 
that granite-ribbed spur of the Black Hills, you 
pass through a cut 236 feet lower than the summit 
of the old line. West of Dale Creek, through a spur 
of the same mountain, you pass through a tunnel 
1,800 feet long, bored through solid granite, of 
which Sherman Hill was the backbone. 

Lifting huge locomotives and trains over high 
hills and mountains at immense cost for fuel and 
power struck Harriman, the hard-headed Yankee, 
as an impractical and useless proposition. It 
aroused his spirit of conquest and drove him to 
these marvelous feats of engineering, and his first 
was Sherman Hill. It was found necessary to 
shoot a tunnel through Sherman Hill, solid gran- 
ite, 1,800 feet long and of ample dimensions for 
the largest load to pass through. Precautions were 
taken to reduce the grade through the tunnel, thus 
avoiding inconvenience from smoke or foul air and 
insuring comfort to the travelers. 

To get an idea of the immensity of the work, 
understand first that Dale Creek fill is 900 feet 
long, 120 feet high and that 500,000 cubic yards 
of Sherman gravel was used in constructing the 
embankment; that the crossing of Lone Tree 
Creek is about 800 feet long, 125 feet high, with 
290,000 cubic yards of fill in the embankment. 

This Sherman Hill line crosses the Rocky 
Mountains at a summit 237 feet lower than the 
old crossing, thus making the highest elevation 

i 4 i 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

reached by the Union Pacific 8,010 feet above 
sea level, instead of 8,247 feet as formerly. 

ASPEN TUNNEL 

Aspen tunnel or cut-off was the largest single 
piece of work ever undertaken by the Union 
Pacific up to that time and it has been surpassed 
in magnitude and prodigious technique only by 
the Great Salt Lake cut-off, completed several 
years later. 

Aspen cut-off was begun November 13, 1899, 
and completed November 15, 1901, while the Great 
Salt Lake cut-off was completed and dedicated in 
November, 1903, after more than two years of the 
most arduous toil railroad builders ever exerted. 

Aspen tunnel extends from Leroy to Bear River, 
Wyoming. It avoids the great Tapioca Hill which 
was a difficult piece of track to operate, espe- 
cially in winter. It penetrates Aspen Ridge, one of 
the eastern foothills of the Wahsatch Range, and is 
5,900 feet in length. The construction of the 
tunnel was of particular interest in the railroad 
world because of the peculiar character of earth 
encountered and large quantities of water. To 
hasten work of construction, a central shaft was 
sunk, the top of which was 331 feet above grade. 
From the bottom of this the work was prosecuted 
east and west. The greatest depth below the sur- 
face of the earth is 456 feet and the highest point 
above sea level is 7,296 feet. The tunnel was 

142 



FOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS 

finished for a single track and lined with timber 
and concrete, making it one of the most perfect 
pieces of work on the continent. 

This cut-off, like all others of the Union Pacific, 
conserves the one basic purpose of the recon- 
struction — elimination of curves and reduction of 
grades as much as possible. On this Aspen cut-off 
there is no grade greater than forty-three feet per 
mile and no curve of more than 3 degrees and 
36 minutes. The grade through the tunnel is 
twenty-one feet per mile. This tunnel is electric- 
lighted and ventilated upon the most modern 
basis. The Aspen cut-off and tunnel together 
make a line of track twenty-two miles in length 
and cut off ten miles from the distance of the 
original route. 

MATCHLESS FEAT IN GREAT SALT LAKE CUT-OFF 

And now we come to the matchless Great Salt 
Lake cut-off. All of these other enterprises are 
great and are serving great purposes, but for 
boldness of conception and skill of execution it 
has been seriously questioned if they or any 
other similar achievements in the line of railroad 
building can half compare with this piece of work. 
It is the embodiment of the intrepid Harriman 
spirit. 

The Great Salt Lake cut-off is a line of track 
crossing Great Salt Lake at its deepest portion. It 
is 102.5 miles in length and saves in distance 

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FOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS 

forty-three miles. But this saving in distance is a 
small matter as compared to the saving in motive 
power and cost of operation. It avoids Prom- 
ontory Hill, the highest point on the line of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad until you reach the sum- 
mit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. 

This evasion of Promontory Hill means sim- 
ply that engines and trains, with their thousands 
of tons of weight, no longer have to be lifted to 
the elevation of approximately 7,000 feet. 

This cut-off leaves the main line at Ogden and 
darts across Great Salt Lake, striking Lucin, its west- 
ern terminus, 102.5 miles away, making almost a bee 
line. Between Ogden and the lake it traverses a 
level strip of country for fourteen and a half miles. 
In this distance the line crosses Weber River twice 
and makes three short curves. In all, the line is 
composed of seventy-two miles on land and 
twenty-nine and a half of trestle on water. Twelve 
miles and 600 feet of this trestle is permanent; 
the remainder filled with material from Little 
Mountain, on Promontory Point. 

Across Promontory Point, a distance of five 
miles, the line skirts along on land. An almost 
insuperable obstacle encountered by the builders 
was a rock 3,000 feet in length and averaging 
twenty feet in depth. It was necessary to cut 
directly through this rock. 

Some of the best engineers in the world pro- 
nounced this cut-off impracticable. Mr. Harriman 
himself had to be won over to the scheme before 

MS 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

he would adopt it. When he came into possession 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, superseding Collis 
P. Huntington, he determined, as Mr. Huntington 
had determined before him, that some other line 
should be built so as to avoid Promontory Hill. 
But Mr. Harriman believed the solution of the 
problem was to run a line around the southern end 
of the lake. 

Chief Engineer Hood of the Southern Pacific 
has been credited with the original idea of a cut-off 
across Salt Lake. Mr. Hood presented the scheme 
to Julius Kruttschnitt, who became Mr. Harriman's 
right-hand man when he took control of the prop- 
erty. Mr. Kruttschnitt was soon converted and 
he, in turn, after considerable time, converted 
Mr. Harriman to the cause of the Great Salt Lake 
cut-off. 

Those men, however, who felt that the under- 
taking was not feasible because of its excessive 
hazard, had some grounds, as events disclosed, for 
their views. While the construction work was in 
progress, at least one solid construction train was 
swallowed up and completely lost in the quagmire 
of the lake. Engine, cars, and their load of ballast 
brought from Bear Mountain, together with the 
trainmen, went down. Another illustration of the 
peril of this undertaking was shown when they 
began to drive their piles. One pile on top of 
another was driven before any apparent founda- 
tion was struck. Expert engineers did not pretend 
to say how deep this quagmire was and for some 

146 



FOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS 

time there was serious question if the undertaking 
would not, after all, have to be abandoned. Even 
after the cut-off was completed and in operation it 
sank to an appreciable degree and train service was 
temporarily abandoned while more ballast was 
thrown in and also to give time for the settlement 
process. 

But no accidents have occurred on the cut-off 
since it was placed permanently in operation and 
today it is regarded as just as safe as any other por- 
tion of track. Its champions have been vindicated 
and it has come to be known as one of the great 
scenes along the sinuous trail of this master trans- 
continental line and one of the unique features of 
American railroading. It saves millions to its 
owners. 

Part of the line on this cut-off is single, but most 
of it is double tracked. Technically speaking, the 
Great Salt Lake cut-off is not a part of the Union 
Pacific, for it begins where the Union Pacific ends, 
at Ogden, but practically it is a part of the Union 
Pacific, for, while it is the first 100 miles of the 
Southern Pacific tracks on the eastern end, the 
Southern Pacific and Union Pacific are to all prac- 
tical purposes of travel one road, stretching from 
Omaha to California. 



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A BIT OF WESTERN MAGIC 

Your eyes having been securely bandaged, of 
course, ears closed, and every precaution taken to 
obliterate [your senses for the time being, you will 
please step upon the magic carpet, specially imported 
by the Union Pacific for this occasion, and, presto! 
Be pleased to look around you when your eyes are a 
little accustomed to this clear atmosphere. Beautiful 
street, isn't it? This mansion on the right in colonial 
style of architecture must mean Virginia, but the one 
across the street is built upon the strictest twentieth 
century lines. Remarkably fine avenue, and such 
lovely shade trees! Smart looking affair, that big auto- 
mobile, standing in front of the next house! Neatly- 
kept streets, arc lights, shade trees, costly homes- 
well, this must be Cleveland, or New Haven, or any- 
where in the country where people have made and are 
making their money, and have settled down to enjoy it. 

You are wrong, brother. This is a far, very far, 
West town, one of the "woolliest and wildest, " and 
farthest away from your section of any of the 
towns you can find on the map — a town which your 
fervid imagination has often dowered with the stern- 
est, most appalling facts of Western life—this is 
Boise City, Idaho — Boise the Beautiful. 

There were 3,000 people here in 1890 when the 
State was admitted and Boise made the capital; 
there are 25,000 very active, energetic citizens here 
now — and the city still growing. In 1862, gold, in 
quantities hitherto undreamed of, was discovered in 
southern Idaho. This resulted in the founding of 

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Idaho City, which in two years' time showed a 
population of 16,000 adult males. In eight years 
gold to the value of $200,000,000 was taken from 
this camp. In 1863, on the Boise River, the govern- 
ment established Fort Boise, and, on the plain 
between the river and the fort, Boise City was created. 

The days of its infancy were those of the struggle 
and uncertainty that attended the early development 
of all young settlements in a new land. The 
fever of the gold rush died away, and many a mining 
settlement was blotted out entirely or shrunk to a 
wan semblance of its former prosperity. Boise, 
however, though sharing in the struggle, early 
developed a sturdy strength independent of tran- 
sient circumstances. Rapidly she waxed and grew, 
and on the foundations laid in toil and travail, there 
is now building a city of strength and lustihood. 

Location is the largest factor in city building, and 
in this respect Boise is supremely fortunate. First 
came the gold-seekers, then the cowboys and then 
the farmer and the apple-grower; the whole history 
of Idaho is summed up in the one word — irrigation— 
and the wonderful record of that miraculous trans- 
formation is elsewhere written. All southern Idaho 
is tributary to Boise, and then there is the Boise 
Valley where the unbelievable apple crops grow. 
Her position is unchallenged and supreme. Scattered 
throughout the rapidly developing districts are 
scores of flourishing communities, each of importance 
and power in its own immediate locality; but no one 
attempts to vie with Boise for the distinction of 

x 5i 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

leadership. In fact, there is no competition; as they 
grow they pay economic tribute to the metropolis 
and from her receive aid and nourishment. 

A curious fact comes to light when speaking of 
location. Boise is always spoken of as "in the moun- 
tains," and yet it is only 2,760 feet above sea level. 
The United States Weather Observer states that 
the mean temperature for the year was 51 
degrees, about the same as Springfield, Illinois; the 
average January in Boise is 3 degrees cooler 
than Springfield; about once in three years the tem- 
perature goes below zero! The winter mean mini- 
mum temperature is about the same as Fredericks- 
burg, Virginia. And there is sunshine all the time. 
If the thermometer posts high figures in summer you 
do not notice it. I have, myself, driven through 
the Payette Valley when the mercury showed 110 
and did not feel uncomfortable. Nothing like the 
depression resulting from 90 above at the Missouri 
River. The dry, clear, clean air holds the secret. 

These people spent a million dollars in building 
last year; their post office receipts were $76,000 
and their bank clearings amounted to $42,000,000. 
There are eighteen wholesale houses, selling many 
millions a year. We find here in counterpart, the 
well built, well appointed institutions which are 
common in the older States: palatial hotels, spacious 
theaters, federal building, assay office, public library, 
Soldiers Home and, greatest of all, the Natatorium, 
the one structure that occupies a position of peculiar 
importance in the city. 

1 S 2 



A BIT OF WESTERN MAGIC 

The Moorish Building, of palatial proportions, con- 
tains the second largest swimming tank in the world 
with a plunge 122 feet long and 300 feet broad, of 
graded depth. In connection are 300 dressing rooms, 
parlors, billiard rooms, banquet and ball rooms, 
affording all the facilities of the finest club house, 
and playing no small part in the social life of the 
city. The Natatorium is fed by two artesian wells, 
which flow about 2,000 gallons an hour of mineral 
water at 176 degrees temperature. This water is 
exceedingly healthful and is beneficial in the case 
of many different ailments. It is also used through- 
out the city to a great extent. Many residents have 
it in their homes, where it is used for bathing and 
heating purposes. A large number of houses are 
heated by this means alone. 

Standing on one of Boise's principal corners a 
stranger would estimate its population at from thirty- 
five to fifty thousand. Its volume of business would 
justify that figure. The business houses of the city 
are structures of dignity and architectural fitness. 
Its streets are excellently paved and lighted. The 
whole atmosphere is that of prosperity and municipal 
health. In the residence section the eye is charmed 
by block after block of beautiful dwellings, ranging 
from the palatial residence of the man of wealth, to 
the no less attractive cottage of the wage earner. 

The loyal, justly-proud men of Boise proclaim 
with one voice, "Its the biggest little city on the 
map!'' And so it is. 



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SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

Any one of the approaches to the Niagara of the 
West can not, even by whatsoever distortion of fancy, 
be called picturesque. The beaten way thither 
from Pocatello, either by Shoshone Station or via 
Minidoka and Twin Falls, lies over one of those 
void "waste tracts," which we have talked about 
elsewhere — a genuine bit of the "desert.'' It is a 
sagebrush and lava proposition in full bloom. And 
right here in the very heart of desolation springs the 
Minidoka irrigation project whereby 300,000 acres 
of "desert'' will be made over into a garden. Thou- 
sands of apple trees have already been planted on 
this tract. The fifty miles on the Oregon Short Line 
from Minidoka to Twin Falls is already dotted with 
farms carved out of the somber nakedness of this 
lava bed. 

It is 7 miles from Twin Falls over to Shoshone 
Falls by stage. Clifton Johnson, author and 
artist, records his experiences in 1908: "As it 
was only 7 miles I decided to walk. The route 
was not very direct, for I had to follow the right- 
angled roads with which the country has been laid 
off. An uneasy wind blew, and every now and then 
a rotary current would start and catch up a flurry of 
dust. Sometimes the dust would rise in a vague 
brown column hundreds of feet high, and I had fre- 
quently several of these wandering columns in sight 
at the same time. Far off on the horizon, dim with 
silvery haze, were ranges of mountains and two or 

i55 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

three peaks white with snow. The heat shimmered 
over the plain, and the glare of the sun was a pain 
to the eyes. 

'The settlers were busy taming the land by tear- 
ing out and burning the sagebrush, and by ploughing 
and harrowing and scraping their holdings into a 
smooth grade for irrigating. Some of the crops were 
in the ground. There was new wheat pricking up 
out of the soil, and there was alfalfa, started the year 
before, now forming a dark green sod. 

"From any rising bit of ground on my walk I could 
see to the north a dark irregular rift in the sagebrush 
barren, and I knew there flowed the Snake River. 
The rift looked ominous, yet by no means of impos- 
ing proportions, and I concluded that any falls it 
might contain would be a disappointment. At last 
I left the farm lands behind, and the road became a 
narrow trail winding along through a strewing of lava 
blocks. Then I came to the verge of the canon- 
which seemed to have expanded as if by magic to a 
width of a mile, and which yawned over eight hun- 
dred feet in depth. Far down in the chasm was a 
great foaming waterfall. I had come from the hot, 
silent, monotonous prairie wholly unprepared for so 
magnificent a sight or for the thunder of waters that 
sounded in my ears. The gorge itself is of gloomy, 
volcanic rock, devoid of any beauty in color, but 
savagely impressive by reason of its size, and also 
because its columnar and grottoed walls and vast ter- 
races are suggestive of the planning and labor of 
some titanic architect and builder. 

156 



SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

"I wandered for a considerable distance along the 
verge of the monotonous gorge and gazed down on 
the misty fall from the scarp of many a projecting 
buttress, some of which dropped away almost per- 
pendicularly to the dark stream at the bottom of the 
canon. When I, at length, took charge of a ravine to 
descend to lower levels I found the setting of the 
falls became increasingly attractive; for now the rock 
walls and black crags towered far above and made a 
most inspiring spectacle. The river itself is a stream 
which at the falls flows a full thousand feet wide. 
Immediately above the leap are the rapids and lesser 
falls, while big boulders and various islets block the 
way and add to the wild beauty. The vertical final 
drop is about one hundred and eighty feet, and as 
you watch the great white tumult of water going 
down into the void of foam and flying spray below, 
you can not help thinking of Niagara. The latter is 
not so high, but it is much broader and carries far more 
water. However, the Shoshone Falls exhibits about as 
much width and power as the mind can comprehend, 
and its environment appeals to one far more than 
does the commonplace level from which the greater 
falls makes its descent. The on-looker feels satisfied 
that here is one of the noblest sights on this con- 
tinent." 

Years ago Clarence King, one of the early comers 
and at that time with the United States Geological 
Survey, was a delighted visitor, and he has left a 
vivid picture of the great cataract which is worthy of 
preservation. Mr. King says: 

i57 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

'The three great falls of America, Niagara, 
Shoshone, and Yosemite, all happily bearing Indian 
names, are as characteristically different as possible. 
There seems little left for a cataract to express. A 
few miles in front, the smooth surface of the plain 
was broken by a rugged zigzag line of black, which 
marked the further wall of the Snake Canon. A dull, 
throbbing sound greeted us. Its pulsations were deep, 
and seemed to proceed from the ground beneath our 
feet. Leaving the cavalry to bring up the wagon, my 
friend and I galloped on, and were quickly upon the 
edge of the canon wall. 

'We looked down into a broad, circular excava- 
tion, three-quarters of a mile in diameter, and nearly 
1,000 feet deep. East and north, over the edges of 
the canon, we looked across miles and miles of the 
Snake Plain, far on to the blue boundary mountains. 
The wall of the gorge opposite us, like the cliff at our 
feet, sank in perpendicular bluffs, nearly to the level 
of the river, the broad excavation being covered by 
rough piles of black lava and rounded domes of rock. 
A horizon as level as the sea; a circling wall, whose 
sharp edges were here and there battlemented in huge, 
fortress-like masses; a broad river, smooth and 
unruffled, flowing quietly in the middle of the scene, 
and then plunging into a labyrinth of rocks, tumbling 
over a precipice 220 feet high, and moving west- 
ward in a still, deep current, to disappear behind a 
black promontory. 

"It is a strange, savage scene — a monotony of pale 
blue sky, olive and gray stretches of desert, frowning 

158 



SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

walls of jetty lava, deep beryl-green river stretches, 
reflecting here and there the intense solemnity of the 
cliffs, and in the center a dazzling sheet of foam. In 
the early morning light, the shadows of the cliffs were 
cast over half the basin, defining themselves in sharp 
outline here and there on the river. Upon the foam 
of the cataract, one point of the rock cast a blue 
shadow. Where the river flowed around the western 
promontory, it was wholly in shadow and of a deep 
sea-green. A scanty growth of trees fringed the brink 
of the lower cliffs overhanging the river. Dead bar- 
renness is the whole sentiment of the scene. The 
mere suggestion of trees clinging here and there along 
the walls serves rather to heighten than to relieve the 
forbidding gloom of the place. Nor does the flashing 
whiteness where the river tears itself among the rocky 
islands, or rolls in spray down the cliff, brighten the 
aspect. In contrast with its brilliancy, the rocks seem 
darker and more wild. 

'The descent of 1,000 feet from our standpoint to 
the level of the river above the falls has to be made 
by a narrow winding path among rough ledges of lava. 
We were obliged to leave our wagon at the summit, 
and pack down the camp equipmentand photographic 
apparatus upon carefully-led mules. By mid-day 
we were comfortably camped on the margin of the 
left bank, just above the brink of the falls. My tent 
was pitched upon the edge of the cliff directly over- 
hanging the rapids. From my door, I looked over 
the cataract, and, whenever the veil of mist was 
blown aside, could see for a mile down the river. 

i59 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

'The lower half of the canon is excavated in a 
volcanic formation of red and gray rock. It is over 
this material that the Snake falls. Above the brink, 
the whole breadth of the river is broken by a dozen 
small volcanic islands, which the water has carved 
into fantastic forms; rounding some into low domes, 
sharpening others into mere pillars, and now and then 
wearing into deep caves, At the very brink of the 
fall, a few twisted evergreens cling with their roots 
to the rock, and lean over the abyss of foam with 
something of that air of fatal fascination which is apt 
to take possession of men. Under the influence of 
the cool shadow of cliffs and pine, and constant per- 
colating of surface waters, a rare fertility is devel- 
oped in the ravines opening upon the canon shore. 
A luxuriance of ferns and mosses, an almost tropical 
wealth of green leaves and velvety carpeting line 
the banks. There are no rocks at the base of the 
fall. The sheet of foam plunges almost vertically 
into a dark beryl-green lake-like expanse of river. 

"Immense volumes of foam roll up from the 
cataract base, and whirling about in eddying winds, 
rise often a thousand feet in the air. When the 
wind blows down the canon, a gray mist obscures 
the river for half a mile; and, when, as is usually the 
case in the afternoon, the breezes blow eastward, 
the foam cloud curls over the brink of the fall and 
hangs like a veil over the upper river. On what 
condition depends the height to which the foam 
cloud rises from the base of the fall, it is apparently 
impossible to determine. Without the slightest 

1 60 



SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

wind, the cloud of spray often rises several hundred 
feet above the canon wall, and again, with appar- 
ently the same conditions of river and atmosphere, 
it hardly reaches the brink. Incessant roar, 
reinforced by a thousand echoes, fills the canon. 
Out of this monotone from time to time, rise strange 
wild sounds, and now and then may be heard a slow 
measured beat, not unlike the recurring fall of 
breakers. From the white front of the cataract the 
eye constantly wanders up to the black, foaming para- 
pet of lava. Angular bastions rise sharply from the 
general level of the wall, and here and there isolated 
blocks, profiling upon their sky line, strikingly recall 
barbette batteries. To goad one's imagination up to 
the point of perpetually seeing resemblances of every- 
thing else in the forms of rock, is the most vulgar 
vice of travelers; to refuse to see the architectural 
suggestions upon Snake Canon, however, is to 
administer a flat snub to one's fancy. The whole 
edge of the cafion is deeply cleft in vertical crevices. 
The actual brink is usually formed of irregular blocks 
and prisms of lava, poised upon their ends in an 
unstable equilibrium, ready to be tumbled over at 
the leverage of the frost. Hardly an hour passes 
without the boom of one of those rock masses falling 
upon the ragged debris piles below. 

"Night is the true time to appreciate the full force 
of the scene. I lay and watched it many hours. The 
broken rim of the basin profiled itself upon a mass 
of drifting clouds, when torn openings revealed 
gleams of pale moonlight and bits of remote sky 

t6t 



TH E EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

trembling with misty stars. Intervals of light and 
blank darkness hurriedly followed each other. For 
a moment the black gorge would be crowded with 
forms. Tall cliffs, ramparts of lava, the rugged out- 
lines of islands huddled together on the cataract's 
brink, faintly luminous foam breaking over black 
rapids, the swift white leap of the river, and a ghostly, 
formless mist through which the canon walls and far 
reach of the lower river were veiled and unveiled 
again and again. A moment of this strange picture, 
and then a rush of black shadow, when nothing 
could be seen but the breaks in the clouds, the 
basin rim, and a vague white center in the general 
darkness. 

The water here, 200 yards above the falls, is 
over 180 feet deep, smooth and tranquil, and of a 
greenish color. The ferry is a substantial affair, 
built long after Mr. King's visit, worked by an under- 
water wire cable, and another safety wire cable 
above, reaching from bank to bank. The cozy hotel 
is all that could be desired in cuisine and menage, and 
at the very door one stands and looks down at the 
falls. Shoshone differs from every other waterfall 
in this or the old country. It is its lonely grandeur 
that impresses one so deeply; all of the other his- 
toric places have the adjuncts of civilization, and 
one is almost overshadowed by a city while in their 
presence. The encroachments of men have taken 
away from the charm of Nature. But Shoshone is 
as lonely as when at the beginning this surging 
mountain flood sprang through those frowning canon 

i 62 



SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

walls. The height of the chasm above and below 
the falls varies from 1,050 to 1,200 feet, and there 
is eighteen miles of this gorge. The geologists tell 
us there are twelve distinct strata visible in the 
vertical surface. The fall proper measures 97 5 feet 
across, and the Bridal Veil, which is only a few yards 
back of the great fall, 125 feet. Down through this 
appalling rent the river plunges, taking a flying leap 
of 82 feet at first, and then falling thunder- 
ously 210 feet into the boiling basin below. It is 
7 miles to Twin Falls, 6 miles to Blue Lake, a 
charming bit of water 7 5 feet deep and as clear 
as crystal; one-half mile to the Vaulted Dome; 
one-half mile to the Locomotive Cave; a mile and a 
quarter to the lower Cascade Falls, and one and one- 
half miles to the Devil's Corral. The hotel is situ- 
ated on the bank overlooking the Great Falls not 
twenty feet from the brink, and affords a view of 
Bridal Veil, Bridal Train, Natural Mill Race Falls, 
Eagle Rock, and Bells Island. 

One sunset at this enchanted spot will forever 
linger in my memory. The day began to die, and 
then came a wonderful display. As the sun went 
down the sky flashed into manifold colors — there 
were bars of violet, crimson, and delicate shadings 
of pink and salmon. For a few moments the sun 
hung over the great chasm below the falls, flooding 
the majestic canon walls with warm glows, and light- 
ing up the falls with surpassing brilliancy; the river 
flowed beneath, restless and seething after its mighty 
conflict. Down the red orb went behind the western 

163 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



cliff, and great flame bursts and banners, many-hued, 
witnessed his departure. There was a pause — and 
then the pageant dissolved; cool amber grays crept 
across the dome and deepened into shadow; another 
moment the day was gone, and starlight upon us. 

But at night the place was haunted. The wave 
circles of sound were recurrent — at least two or three 
were — that one especially which resembled the thunder 
of a railway train at full speed. It would come roar- 
ing by and die away only to return again and again. 
The mystery and majesty of this great organ volume 
of sound were, at times, appalling. I remember that 
the one solid theme of the thunder of the falls 
never ceased — that was permanent and unvarying- 
but upon this monotonous theme were played a thou- 
sand variations. Once there was a steady tramp, as 
of a battalion of soldiers marching strongly and steadily 
together. This died away, and then two voices were 
heard; very far off, but distinct as if engaged in angry 
altercation; they sank down and the room became 
full of vague and shadowy whisperings, then the 
refrain would break out again. It was too nerve- 
trying, and we opened the window wide; the moon- 
light fell full on the falls and lingered on the rent 
and ghastly side of the canon walls. A faint recur- 
rence could be detected in the heavy bass movement 
of the symphony, if one may so call it, but otherwise 
there was nothing more than the powerful swish and 
roar of the water; but many a time through the night 
we heard those haunting voices, and weird, uncanny 
sounds. 

164 



SHOSHONE, THE WESTERN NIAGARA 

Across the deep, green water we went again in 
safety; upon the narrow road along the face of the 
cliff, and once more stood in the magnificent portal 
and looked back. Serenely towered the canon walls 
in the still summer air; placid and calm the river below; 
the thunder of the cataract heard dimly around to the 
right; golden sunshine falling tenderly on the torn and 
gashed outline of mountain wall and dreaming river — 
a dozen steps through the sharp defile, and the picture 
vanished; there were no mighty deeps — no river, no 
gleam of falling splendor — the waste of the desert 
and the dreary miles of sage brush crept away to the 
dim horizon on every side! 




Shoshone Falls, Idaho 



165 




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Pi 






THE EMPIRE BUILDER 

Nearly twenty years ago Sidney Dillon, railway 
pioneer, and once president of the Union Pacific, 
wrote: 

'The growth of the United States west of the 
Alleghenies during the past fifty years is due not so 
much to free institutions, or climate, or to the fertility 
of the soil, as to railways. If the institutions and 
climate and soil had not been favorable to the devel- 
opment of commonwealths, railways would not have 
been constructed; but if railways had not been 
invented, the freedom and natural advantages of the 
Western States would have beckoned to human immi- 
gration and industry in vain. Civilization would have 
crept slowly on, in a toilsome march over the immense 
spaces that lie between the Appalachian ranges and 
the Pacific Ocean, and what we now style the Great 
West would be, except in the valley of the Missis- 
sippi, an unknown and unproductive wilderness. 

"Like many other great truths, this is so well 
known to the elder portions of our commonwealth 
that they have forgotten it; and the younger portions 
do not comprehend or appreciate it. Men are so 
constituted that they use existing advantages as 
if they had always existed, and were matters of 
course. The world went without friction matches 
during uncounted thousands of years, but people 
light fires to-day without a thought as to the mar- 
velous chemistry of the little instrument that is of 

167 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

such inestimable value, and yet remained so long 
unknown. The youngster of today steps into a lux- 
urious coach at New York, Philadelphia, or Chicago, 
eats, sleeps, surveys romantic scenery from the win- 
dow during a few days, and alights in Portland or San 
Francisco without any just appreciation of the fact 
that a few decades since it would have required 
weeks of toilsome travel to go over the same ground, 
during which he would have run the risks of starva- 
tion, of being lost in the wilderness, plundered by 
robbers, or killed by savages. But increased facili- 
ties of travel are among the smaller benefits conferred 
by the railway. The most beneficent function of 
the railway is that of a carrier of freight. What 
would it cost for a man to carry a ton of wheat one 
mile? What would it cost for a horse to do the same? 
The railway does it at a cost of less than a cent. 
This brings Dakota and Minnesota into direct relation 
with hungry and opulent Liverpool, and makes sub- 
sistence easier and cheaper throughout the civilized 
world. The world should, therefore, thank the rail- 
way for the opportunity to buy wheat; but none the 
less should the West thank the railway for the 
opportunity to sell wheat." 

"Among all the stories in American railroading 
— and it has teemed with the marvelous — few chap- 
ters are so extraordinary," says Frank H. Spearman, 
"as the building up of the Union Pacific Railroad 
system by Edward H. Harriman. The boldness of 
the conception, the magnitude of the undertaking, 
and the constructive genius shown in the working 

168 



THE EMPIRE BUILDER 



out of the plans are all unusual features even in a 
day of undertakings that make for us every year 
new records in industrial history. But a little more 
than ten years ago the Union Pacific was a 
Cinderella among our railways, sitting forlorn and 
in ashes, and all unconscious of the presence of one 
ready to fit the slipper of efficiency to its foot and lead 
it to the highest place in American railroading." 

What this reconstruction has done for the earn- 
ing power of the road may be reflected in the 
fact that Harriman paid the government virtually 
$60,000,000 at auction for the road and today its 
capital stock is valued at $295,000,000. Its annual 
gross earnings far exceed the amount Mr. Harriman 
paid for it. 

What this reconstruction has done for the vast 
empire stretching out from the Missouri River to 
the Pacific Coast may be reflected in the boundless 
prosperity of the towns, cities, and States along its 
line. Communities have been planted and developed 
and enriched, real estate and farm values have been 
multiplied, industries have been established, streams 
have been harnessed, power plants converted from 
natural resources that before this era of railroad 
ingenuity went unused. Volumes might be written 
upon the commercial and industrial influence of the 
physical reconstruction of the Union Pacific upon 
the country it traverses. 

Mr. Harriman bought the road from the govern- 
ment November 1, 1897, at auction sale in Omaha; 
and the road was bankrupt. It owed the govern- 



169 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

ment over $45,000,000, and its rolling stock was 
run down, its roadbed had deteriorated and its 
condition was so bad that nothing except complete 
reconstruction could save it. 

The Union Pacific Railroad — and the same may be 
said of the Southern Pacific — today is the peer, 
physically, of the standard railway lines of the east. 
Such a statement would be unwarranted if offered 
with a sanction less than that of the head of opera- 
tion — the senior vice president — of the New York 
Central Lines themselves. And this standard of 
efficiency, I take it, remains, in the face of many 
remarkable achievements, the chiefest title to Mr. 
Harrimans strength as a railway man. 

It must be said that Mr. Harriman has spent money 
like water to make his roads safe; he has never 
winced at huge estimates in that direction. And the 
rapidity with which he has passed on the enormous 
sums required for betterments has often taken away 
the breath of his associates. It costs $1,000 a mile 
to block signal a railway. More than $12,000,000 
has gone into that work and safety appliances alone 
on the Southern and Union Pacific and other parts 
of the Harriman System. It is now possible to 
travel from Chicago to Portland or to Los Angeles, 
and from there far out into the Colorado desert, 
entirely under automatic block signals. Block signals 
do not greatly expedite train movement; they make 
train movement safer. The $12,000,000 spent on 
them is only an item in the expenditures for better- 
ment, additions, and reconstruction on these two rail- 

170 



THE EMPIRE BUILDER 



ways since Mr. Harriman took control of them. The 
aggregate for these purposes has reached in ten 
years $118,000,000. 

For the twelve months ending June 30, 1898 — the 
year of the re-organization — the gross receipts and 
income of the Union Pacific Railroad amounted to 
$33,281,125 from 5,325 miles of railway operated. 
For the year ending June 30, 1907, the gross receipts 
were $87,473,766. 

During this same period, the surplus, after the 
payment of operating expenses and taxes, grew from 
$13,700,834 to $44,829,542. While net earnings 
were increasing at this rate, fixed charges which in 
[898 were $4,488,260 had in 1907 become only 
$8,652,621. 

For the twelve months ending June 30, 1898 — 
three years before the present management took 
hold — the gross receipts of the Southern Pacific 
Company were $57,975,593. For 1907, the figures 
were $129,900,404 — a sum equaled only by the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 

During this same period the surplus, after paying 
operating expenses and taxes, grew from only $21,- 
357,537 to $46,783,102. Fixed charges meanwhile 
increased from $15,431,078 in 1898 to $19,084,409 
in 1907. In 1898, no dividend was paid, and there 
was a surplus of $5,926,458. In 1907, dividends 
aggregating $13,157,013 were paid, and there was 
left over a surplus of $14,541,580. 

Mr. Harriman's suggestions to men like President 
Harahan of the Illinois Central, President Under- 

171 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

wood of the Erie, or to Mr. Kruttschnitt, were the 
amazement of these men, who had spent their lives 
in making railways. For example, every good railway 
has small branch lines, vital to it in that they supply 
freight traffic. The public living on such lines 
demands a passenger service that must be run at a 
loss. A branch line passenger train turning in gross 
earnings of 30 cents a mile eats heavily into the 
freight profits, and every American railway man has 
had occasion to worry over this difficulty. Motoring 
one day in France, Mr. Harriman said, pointing to 
the machine in which he was riding, "Why not try 
something of this kind on our Nebraska branches?" 

Every one of our railway men had thought of the 
branch-line difficulty, but it was Mr. Harriman who 
thought of the solution. The result was a railway 
gasoline motor passenger car to take the place of the 
locomotive and the two heavy and nearly empty 
passenger cars of a train, with their two expensive 
crews. A company was organized which makes these 
cars and they are now used on the Union Pacific and 
other railways. 

Mr. Harriman was first in declaring that our 
present track-gauge of four feet, eight and one-half 
inches is inadequate to present-day railway needs; 
that we must come to a six-foot gauge. Some of our 
railways started out with such a gauge two genera- 
tions ago. It was more than they could stand then, 
but it is what is needed today; and only the 
appalling cost of the change prevents its adoption. 

In 1889 Hon. Jesse Spaulding, one of the Gov- 

T72 



THE EMPIRE BUILDER 



ernment directors of the Union Pacific, in his report 
to the Secretary of the Interior made the following 
observations — what Mr. Spaulding said twenty-one 
years ago is as true to-day as then; the point of 
view and the note of progress is simply emphasized 
in 1910: 

'I found people in Nebraska who are possessed 
with the idea that the Union Pacific was constructed 
for, and should be operated mainly in deference to, 
the wishes of that section, and who actually believed 
that their State should be consulted by the managers 
before any improvements were made, innovations 
prosecuted, or extensions pushed forward. In the 
minds of such people the question whether the road 
had done more for the State than the State had done 
for the road never seemed to arise. But those who 
take an unreasoning and, to my mind, a most unjust 
view of the conduct of the Union Pacific are 
exceptions to the rule. Among the most advanced 
thinkers of Nebraska a different feeling exists and 
different opinions prevail. They point out with just 
and pardonable pride the wonderful strides which the 
young State has made since the Union Pacific Rail- 
way was constructed. They call your attention to 
the beautiful, bustling, and wealthy city of Omaha, 
with its 140,000 inhabitants, to the handsome and 
progressive State capital, Lincoln, with its 60,000; 
to Grand Island, with its 15,000; to Beatrice, with its 
12,000; to Fremont, with its 10,000, and Hastings, 
with its 10,000; and to a hundred thriving towns and 
cities along the lines of the main stem and its 



i73 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

branches, the growth of all of which is directly due 
to the facilities for the receipt, distribution, and ship- 
ment of commodities and manufactures afforded by 
the Union Pacific System. 

'The growth of the whole country from the Mis- 
souri River to the Rockies is surprising. One sees 
nothing but signs of life and evidences of prog- 
ress on all sides. The smallest hamlets are imbued 
with the same spirit that characterizes the larger 
towns and cities. The people are everywhere enter- 
prising, energetic, and industrious. Improvements, 
innovations, and inventions that the East has not yet 
had time to adopt, to make, or to utilize are to be 
found in full operation in these new communities. 
Small towns in the Far West have a better system of 
street railways and street illumination than the great 
cities of the East. Street cars drawn by horses, in 
the minds of Western people, belong to the remote 
past. It is a slow town, indeed, that has not acquired 
its cable or electric railway, or that depends upon gas 
as a street illuminator. While there has been an 
unhealthy inflation in the price of real estate in many 
of those towns, my observation was that most of 
them had passed safely through the dangerous specu- 
lative period of their existence, and are now growing 
steadily and solidly. But few of the towns which 
have attracted attention by reason of their sudden, 
rapid, or mushroom growth during the past twenty 
years, have disappointed those who cast their lots 
with them. They are nearly all well situated, and, in 
my opinion, are destined to continue growing in 

i74 



THE EMPIRE BUILDER 



population and wealth for many years to come. 
Manufactories of all kinds are everywhere welcomed 
and encouraged, morally and substantially; mining in 
some sections is only yet in its infancy; industries of 
all kinds find a constantly growing market; the agri- 
cultural districts are expanding month by month; 
there is nothing, apparently, to check the tide of 
prosperity." The Union Pacific was the empire 
builder of the West. 




Palisade Canon, Nevada 



1.75 





Nearer View of Promontory Point, Utah 



DRIVING THE GOLDEN SPIKE 

General Grenville M. Dodge, "chief engineer in 
charge of construction," still with us, hale and 
hearty rounding out an active life in honored old 
age, tells in picturesque fashion the story of the 
driving of the golden spike at Promontory in 1869. 
The story was written for the fortieth anniversary 
of this event May 10, 1909. 

'The building of a Pacific steam road to connect 
the streams flowing into the Atlantic and Pacific 
was advocated as early as 1819, before a mile of 
railroad was built in any part of the world. It took 
practical form when Asa Whitney, in 1845, in 
petitioning Congress in behalf of a Pacific railroad, 
said: 'You will see that it will change the whole 
world.' Senator Thomas H. Benton in 1849 pleaded 
that the great line when built should 'be adorned 
with its crowning honor, the colossal statue of the 
great Columbus, whose design it accomplishes, 
hewn from the granite mass of a peak of the Rocky 
Mountains, overlooking the road, the mountain 
itself the pedestal, and the statue a part of the 
mountain, pointing with outstretched arm to the 
western horizon, and saying to the flying passenger, 
'There is the east! There is India!' Charles 

Sumner in 1853 said: 'The railroad from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, traversing a whole continent 
and binding together two oceans, this mighty 
thoroughfare when completed will mark an epoch 
of human progress second only to that of our 

177 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Declaration of Independence. May the day soon 
come!' And it did come, and all the prophecies 
were fulfilled when the first transcontinental line 
was completed and the tracks joined at Promontory 
Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869, just forty years ago. 
Ground was broken at Omaha December 2, 1863. 

'This ceremony was one of peace and harmony 
between the Union Pacific, coming from the east, 
and the Central Pacific, coming from the West. 
For a year or more there had been great contention 
and rivalry between the two companies, the Union 
Pacific endeavoring to reach Humboldt Wells, on 
the west boundary of Utah, and the Central Pacific 
rushing to reach Ogden, Utah, to give them an out- 
let to Salt Lake City, and the two lines were graded 
alongside of each other for 225 miles between 
Ogden and Humboldt Wells. Climbing Promon- 
tory Mountain they were not a stone's throw apart. 

"When both companies saw that neither could 
reach its goal they came together and we made an 
agreement to join the tracks on the summit of 
Promontory mountain, the Union Pacific selling 
to the Central Pacific fifty-six miles of its road back 
within five miles of Ogden and leasing trackage 
over that five miles to enable the Central Pacific to 
reach Ogden. These five miles were not only a 
part of the Union Pacific, but used by their line 
north to Idaho. This agreement was ratified by 
Congress. Each road built to the summit of Pro- 
montory, leaving a gap of about 100 feet of rail to 
be laid when the last spike was driven. The chief 

178 



DRIVING THE GOLDEN SPIKE 

engineers of the Union and Central Pacific had 
charge of the ceremony and the work, and we set a 
day far enough ahead so that trains coming from 
New York and San Francisco would have ample 
time to reach Promontory in time to take part in the 
ceremonies. 

ARRIVAL OF THE OFFICIAL PARTIES 

"On the morning of May 10, 1869, Hon. Leland 
Stanford, governor of California and president of 
the Central Pacific, accompanied by Messrs. Hunt- 
ington, Hopkins, Croker and trainloads of Cali- 
fornia's distinguished citizens, arrived from the 
West. During the forenoon Vice President T. C. 
Durant and Directors John R. Duff and Sidney 
Dillon and Consulting Engineer Silas A. Seymour 
of the Union Pacific, with other prominent men, 
including a delegation of Mormons from Salt Lake 
City, came in on a train from the East. The national 
government was represented by a detachment of 
'regulars' from Fort Douglas, Utah, accompanied 
by a band, and 600 others, including Chinese, 
Mexicans, Indians, half-breeds, negroes and laborers, 
suggesting an air of cosmopolitanism, all gathered 
around the open space where the tracks were to be 
joined. The Chinese laid the rails from the west 
end, and the Irish laborers laid them from the 
east end, until they met and joined. 

'Telegraphic wires were so connected that each 
blow!'of the descending sledge could be reported 

179 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

instantly to all parts of the United States. Corre- 
sponding blows were struck on the bell of the city- 
hall in San Francisco, and with the last blow of the 
sledge a cannon was fired at Fort Point. General 
Safford presented a spike of gold, silver and iron as 
the offering of the Territory of Arizona. Governor 
Tuttle of Nevada presented a spike of silver from 
his State. The connecting tie was of California 
laurel, and California presented the last spike of 
gold in behalf of that State. A silver sledge had 
also been presented for the occasion. A prayer was 
offered. Governor Stanford of California made a 
few appropriate remarks on behalf of the Central 
Pacific and the chief engineer responded for the 
Union Pacific. Then the telegraphic inquiry from 
the Omaha office, from vvhich the circuit was to be 
started, was answered: 'To everybody: Keep 
quiet. When the last spike is driven at Promontory 
Point we will say "Done." Don't break the circuit, 
but watch for the signals of the blows of the 
hammer. The spike will soon be driven. The 
signal will be three dots for the commencement of 
the blows.' The magnet tapped one — two — three 
— then paused — 'Done.' The spike was given its 
first blow by President Stanford and Vice President 
Durant followed, neither of whom hit the spike the 
first time, but hit the rail, and were greeted by 
the lusty cheers of the onlookers, accompanied 
by the screams of the locomotives and the music of 
the military band. Many other spikes were driven 
on the last rail by some of the distinguished persons 

1S0 



DRIVING THE GOLDEN SPIKE 

present, but it was seldom that they first hit the 
spike. The original spike, after being tapped by 
the officials of the companies, was driven home 
by the chief engineers of the two roads. Then the 
two trains were run together, the two locomotives 
touching at the point of junction, and the engineers 
of the two locomotives each broke a bottle of 
champagne on the others engine. Then it was 
declared that the connection was made and the 
Atlantic and Pacific were joined together never to 
be parted. 

CELEBRATE FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN 

'The wires in every direction were hot with 
congratulatory telegrams. President Grant and Vice 
President Colfax were the recipients of especially 
felicitous messages. On the evening of May 8th, in 
San Francisco, from the stages of the theaters and 
other public places, notice was given that the two 
roads had met and were to be wedded on the 
morrow. The celebration there began at once and 
practically lasted through the 10th. The booming 
of cannon and the ringing of bells were united with 
the other species of noise making in which jubilant 
humanity finds expression for its feelings on such 
an occasion. The buildings in the city were gay 
with flags and bunting. Business was suspended 
and the longest procession that San Francisco had 
ever seen attested the enthusiasm of the people. At 
night the city was brilliant with illuminations. Free 
railway trains filled Sacramento with an unwonted 

181 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

crowd, and the din of cannon, steam whistles and 
bells followed the final message. 

"At the eastern terminus in Omaha, the firing of 
a hundred guns on Capitol Hill, more bells and steam 
whistles and a grand procession of fire companies, 
civic socities, citizens and visiting delegations echoed 
the sentiments of the Californians. In Chicago a 
procession of four miles in length, a lavish display 
of decoration in the city and on the vessels in the 
river, and an address by Vice President Colfax in 
the evening were the evidences of the city's feeling. 
In New York, by order of the mayor, a salute of a 
hundred guns announced the culmination of the 
great undertaking. In Trinity church the te deum 
was chanted, prayers were offered, and when the 
services were over the chimes rung out 'Old Hun- 
dred,' the 'Ascension Carol,' and national airs. The 
ringing of bells on Independence Hall and the fire 
stations in Philadelphia produced an unusual con- 
course of citizens to celebrate the national event. 
In the other large cities of the country the expres- 
sions of public gratification were hardly less hearty 
and demonstrative. Bret Harte was inspired to write 
the celebrated poem of 'What the Engines Said.' 
The first verse is: 

"What was it the engines said, 
Pilots touching, head to head, 
Facing on the single track, 
Half a world behind each back? 
This is what the engines said, 
Unreported and unread. 

182 



DRIV ING THE GOLDEN SPIKE 

"Not forgetting my old commander, General W. T. 
Sherman, who had been such an aid in protecting us 
in the building of the road, in answer to our tele- 
gram, sent this dispatch: 

"Washington, May II, 1869— General G. M. 
Dodge: In common with millions, I sat yesterday, and 
heard the mystic taps of the telegraphic battery 
announce the nailing of the last spike in the great 
Pacific road. Indeed, am I its friend? Yea. Yet, am 
I to be a part of it, for as early as 1854, 1 was vice-presi- 
dent of the effort begun in San Francisco under the 
contract of Robinson, Seymour & Co. As soon as 
General Thomas makes certain preliminary inspections 
in his new command on the Pacific I will go out, and, 
I need not say, will have different facilities from that 
of 1846, when the only way to California was by 
sailing around Cape Horn, taking our ships 196 days. 
All honor to you, to Durant, to Jack and Dan Case- 
ment, to Reed, and the thousands of brave fellows 
who have wrought out this glorious problem, spite of 
changes, storms and even doubts of the incredulous, 
and all the obstacles you have happily surmounted. 

W. T. SHERMAN, General. 

"After the ceremony, a sumptuous lunch was 
served in President Stanford's cars and appropriate 
speeches were made by Governor Stanford and 
others, and a general jollification was enjoyed. At 
night each train took its way to its own home, leaving 
at the junction point only the engineers and the 
workmen to complete the work ready for the through 
trains that followed in a day or two after. 

'The one thought that was in all minds was, 'What 
of the future? What could a railroad earn that ran 

183 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

almost its entire length from Nebraska to the Cali- 
fornia State line through a country uninhabited, and, 
at that date, with no developed local business upon 
its whole line.' 

"My own views upon that question I expressed in 
my report upon the completion of the road in 1869, 
in which I said: 'Its future is fraught with great 
good. It will develop a waste, will bind together 
the two extremes of the nation as one, will stimulate 
intercourse and trade, and bring harmony, prosperity, 
and wealth to the two coasts. A proper policy, 
systematically and persistently followed, will bring 
to the road the trade of the two oceans and will give 
it all the business it can accommodate; while the 
local trade will increase gradually until the mining, 
grazing, and agricultural regions through which it 
passes will build up and create a business that will 
be a lasting and permanent support to the company.' 

"As soon as the road was in operation, with reg- 
ular trains, the company called upon me to make an 
estimate of the earnings of the company for the 
next ten years. They desired that they should show 
a sum, if possible, equal to the interest upon all the 
company bonds and provide for the government 
sinking fund. 

WHAT THE GOLDEN SPIKE ACHIEVED 

'This was a problem that would have challenged 
the imagination of the greatest optimist of the time, 
for we had a road 1,086 miles in length, with few set- 
tlements upon it, and the country surrounding it, 

184 



DRIVING THE GOLDEN SPIKE 

from our own observation, did not promise any great 
amount of railroad traffic. However, by claiming all 
the known traffic between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
and all the trade of foreign countries seeking Japan, 
China, and Australia by this route, we built up a 
yearly earning of $5,000 per mile; but the growth of 
the country even then distanced my imagination 100 
per cent, and our yearly earnings in ten years rose to 
$10,000 or $12,000 per mile. When I look back 
upon the growth of the country west of the Missouri, 
now supporting five transcontinental lines, with all 
the miles of lateral roads filling the intermediate 
territory, with the traffic on the Union Pacific today 
demanding a double track over its entire length, 
I have not the ability to even guess what the future 
has in store; to calculate the business that will 
be created by the Government's conservation of 
the country's resources, its millions spent impound- 
ing the great streams that flow east and west from 
the Rocky Mountains, the minerals hidden in every 
range and foothill, the agricultural growth from dry 
farming and irrigation, and the great yearly increase 
in population. Today the country is comparatively 
only scratched; as it develops and grows today, in 
ten years it will require 50,000 additional miles of 
railroad to transport its people and its products. 

"When the Union Pacific was first built, over 90 
per cent of its traffic was through business. Now 
that figure is reversed and 90 per cent of it or more 
is local, and this is the case with all the transconti- 
nental and intermediate lines. There is an empire 

185 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

building up west of the Missouri River and on the 
Pacific Coast from Mexico to Bering Strait. Already 
there is a development that has outstripped every 
effort to meet its demands or anticipate its neces- 
sities. To me, who traveled over most of this 
country in the fifties and sixties, when its inhabit- 
ants were mostly Indians, and its products game and 
grass, its growth I can not even comprehend, and its 
future no man can safely prophesy." 

It is a great satisfaction to have lived and wit- 
nessed the development of our nation from the lakes 
to the Pacific. As a result of the civil war it has 
made a century's growth in fifty years. 




Driving the Last Spike 

186 



THE COLUMBIA RIVER 

"Briefest of the mighty streams of earth" and 
"Achilles of rivers" it has been called; both apt titles 
for the majestic flood, if we accept the real Columbia 
as existing only from its junction with the Snake 
336 miles from Astoria. But the river as shown on 
the maps winds down for 1,200 miles from two tiny 
lakes in British Columbia to its death in the Pacific. 
The old explorers, trappers, and voyageurs did not 
value highly either Clarks Fork on the north or 
the Snake on the south; that is insofar as they were 
of sufficient dignity to carry a great name alone; for 
those hardy early comers the Columbia was born at 
the place now known as Ainsworth, where the Snake 
is joined by "Clarks Fork," so that, Achilles like, its 
life was short and glorious in its jubilant march to 
the sea. 

It is born amidst the glories of the range in the 
far north, its early life tamely placid; flows north from 
its source for 150 miles through the level marshy 
stretches of a valley, and for all that distance presents 
a scene of unruffled calm; at Boat Encampment turns 
sharply west and dashes through wild canons and 
dangerous rapids. From Lake Windermere, one of its 
sources, to Golden is a delightful steamer ride. From 
here the river is abandoned and train taken to 
Revelstoke on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. 
Steamboat service is afforded in interrupted fashion 
all the way down the river in this section, across the 
international boundary line, and due south to Ains- 

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worth, interruptions made imperative by the many- 
rapids, falls, and bewildering channels. 

The traveler going west by Union Pacific, Oregon 
Short Line, and Oregon Railroad & Navigation 
Company first views the Columbia at Umatilla, Ore- 
gon, and from here we can follow the majestic river 
for a hundred and fifty miles and more. Great 
improvements are now in process of construction 
by the Government; some have been completed. 
Between Umatilla and Celilo a lock will be con- 
structed around the falls and rapids, and as well at 
The Dalles. 

The river trip from The Dalles to Portland will 
be found a pleasant diversion after the long rail- 
way ride, and a day's sail down the Columbia is a 
memory-picture which lasts a lifetime. It is 88 
miles by rail to Portland, the train skirting the 
river bank up to within a few miles of the city. The 
distance by river is 50 miles to the Upper Cascades, 
through the great locks built by the Government, then 
60 miles by steamer again to Portland. The boat 
leaves The Dalles in the morning, and reaches 
Portland in the evening. Accommodations are first- 
class in every respect; good table, neat staterooms, 
and courteous attention. 

For those who have leisure it is a good plan to 
give a day to the interesting country in the near 
vicinity of The Dalles. The Dalles proper of the 
Columbia begin at Celilo, 14 miles above this point, 
and after Celilo Falls and whirlpool are simply 
a succession of rapids, until, nearing The Dalles 



iSg 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

station, the stream for two and a half miles, narrows 
down between walls of basaltic rock 130 feet across. 
In the flood-tides of the spring the water in the chasm 
has risen 126 feet. The" word "Dalles" is rather 
misleading. The word is French, "dalle," and means, 
variously, "a plate," "a flagstone," "a slab," alluding 
to the oval or square shaped stones which abound 
in the river bed and the valley above. But the early 
French hunters and trappers called a chasm, or a 
defile, or gorge, "dalles," meaning in their vernacular 
"a trough;" and "Dalles" it has remained. 

Leaving The Dalles in the morning, a splendid 
panorama begins to unfold on this lordly stream. It 
is difficult to describe the charm of this trip. Resi- 
dents of the East pronounce it superior to the 
Hudson, and travelers assert there is nothing like it 
in the Old World. It is simply delicious to those 
escaped from the heat and dust of their far-off 
homes to embark on this noble stream and steam 
smoothly down past frowning headlands and "rocks 
with cavern imageries," bluffs lined with pine trees, 
vivid green, past islands and falls, and distant views 
of snowy peaks. There is no trip like it on the 
coast, and for a river excursion there is not its equal 
in the United States 

From Cascade Locks, swinging once more down 
stream, we pass hundreds of charming spots, sixty 
miles of changeful beauty all the way to Portland; 
Multnomah Falls, a filmy veil of water falling 7 20 
feet into a basin on the hillside, and then 130 feet to 
the river; past the rocky walls of Cape Horn, tower- 

190 



THE COLUMBIA RIVER 



ing up a thousand feet; past that curious freak of 
nature, Rooster Rock, and the Palisades; past Fort 
Vancouver, where Grant and Sheridan were once 
stationed; and, just at sunset leaving the Columbia, 
which by this time has broadened into noble dimen- 
sions, we ascend the Willamette 1 2 miles to Port- 
land. And the memory of that day's journey down 
the lordly river will remain a gracious possession 
for years to come. 

So much has been said of this mighty river that 
the preconceived idea of the tourist is of a surging 
flood of unknown depth rushing like a mountain tor- 
rent. The plain facts are that the Lower Columbia 
is rather a placid stream, with a sluggish current, and 
the channel shoals up to eight feet, then falling to 
twelve, fifteen, and seventeen feet, and suddenly 
dropping to 100 feet of water and over. In the 
spring months it will rise from twenty-five to forty 
feet, leaving driftwood high up among the trees on 
the banks. The tide ebbs and flows at Portland 
from eighteen inches to three feet, according to 
season, and this tidal influence is felt, in high water, 
as far up as the Cascades. 

UNFORGOTTEN PICTURES 



HOOD FROM THE DALLES 

Within sight of the graceful cone of that old 
volcano, Hood, the noble scenery of the Upper 
Columbia begins. The flood of waters, boiling and 

191 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

hissing through the "Dalles," has run a lengthened 
course. In part, it has come from far away to the 
east, near the base of the Teton Peaks; in part from 
near the Yellowstone and from Henry's Lake; and 
from the north where the Rockies extend their chain 
into the piney regions of British Columbia. 

From the head of the "Dalles," Mount Hood 
shows grandly, isolated above the lesser forest-clad 
mountains, which are dwarfed in appearance to mere 
hills by its superior height. At no time do we admire 
the mountain more than when it is laced across by 
fine tissues of cloud, left by a past storm, and between 
whose filmy veils its snowy sides are revealed with 
teeth-like juts of lava thrust up through the white- 
ness. 

Plainly visible are the tracks of the ancient glaciers, 
and a strong glass shows the bristling ice-fields that 
cover it in places at the present time. 

The Indians have not yet entirely deserted the 
place. When the spearing season arrives a few wig- 
wams are sure to be seen close by the impetuous 
tide. Many a glistening salmon rewards their excit- 
ing toil, and many are secured as they try to leap the 
rapids and fall upon the lava rocks. 

A GLIMPSE OF MOUNT ADAMS 

Upon the hillside above the mouth of Hood River, 
one has command of a noteworthy view. We stand 
midway between Mount Adams and Mount Hood. 
We see both those giants, two in that sentry line of 

TQ2 



THE COLUMBIA RIVER 



Titans watching along the coast, and flashing in sun- 
light, the glacier-fed stream to which Hood gives 
its name, and on the opposite hand emerging from a 
shaggy glen, the White Salmon River, born amid the 
snow-wreaths of Adams. 

It is a delightful walk, at morn or eve, up the 
steep hill-path. The woods are vocal with the songs 
of birds. We see the showy plumage of the Balti- 
more oriole and the fluttering wings of the jay, 
"that noisy coxcomb, in his light-blue coat and white 
underclothes," as he swings on the branches of the 
blossomed syringa. 

Past the mouth of Hood River the Columbia 
spreads out like a lake, mirroring the passing clouds, 
and with hardly a motion perceptible in the slowly 
moving waters. 

HEIGHTS OF GIBRALTAR, OR UPPER CAPE HORN 

This is one of the many bluffs along the river 
around which the train passes on a road that has been 
cut away from the base of a cliff. The singularity 
of this bluff is its isolation; it stands like the end of 
a massive wall suddenly terminating at the river 
edge. At right-angles with the bluff is the placid 
: river surface, here calm and reflecting the high rocks 
and line of trees in its passing waters — the very 
scene that a painter would choose to express grandeur 
in repose. 

We are about to pass along perhaps the most 
picturesque region in this part of the West; sailing by 

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THE COLUMBIA RIVER 



kaleidoscopic changes of scenery; little towns, bluffs, 
tree-covered islands and shores; by reaches of the 
river where it lies calm; and by rapids and cascades 
where it roars over the rocky ledges; by sawmills 
and fish wheels; by towering mountains; past the 
entrances to mossy glens, and past cliffs with white 
foamy waterfalls dangling from the heights. 

OLD BLOCK HOUSE, NEAR CASCADES 

Many a tale could the old Block House tell, did 
but its warped timbers possess a voice — tales of 
rapid innovations since first it stood on the mound- 
top. Few are the years that have passed since then, 
in comparison with the changes that the place has 
known, and few, indeed, since the river sped on in 
solitude, its broad tide untraversed save by the light 
canoe, and the silence unbroken save by the red 
man's voice, the dash of the waters, or, at times, the 
rolling thunder, the long howl of the wolf beneath 
the moon, or the eagle screaming as he mounted 
toward the sun, above the forest-robed cliffs. 

Now, this is changed. The white man is sovereign. 
His fire-boats breast the stream; his home stands in 
every bend of the river where once the smoke from 
the camp-fire arose; and the Indian looks sullenly 
on. Yet the old Block House tells that not without 
a struggle did he yield the land of his fathers, to be 
under the sway of the pale-face. 

Perhaps, when more years have passed away, and 
the land knows its elder inhabitants no more, we may 

i95 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

forget what now makes them worthless in our eyes, 
and, remembering that in our might we wrested from 
them their lands — existence itself — think only of 
them with pity, only of the simple joys and sorrows 
of a primitive race. 

AT THE CASCADES 

A showery day, with its effects of sunshine and 
shadow, along the river banks makes its rugged and 
romantic scenery doubly attractive. Until we reach 
Hood River, we see many a lava wall on either side 
of the stream, and, all wet with the passing showers, 
they are of a purple-black color with reddish mark- 
ings where they have been freshly broken. Along 
the tops the dry buffalo grass is of a tarnished old- 
gold, or old-gold glazed with burnt sienna, and the 
contrast this makes when relieved against the rainy 
clouds, of a cold neutral tint, and this again with 
the warm green-gray of the river is pleasing to the 
artistic eye. 

At certain points along the Columbia we are con- 
stantly reminded of the Hudson, though it is 
questioned whether the latter has such wild and 
rugged mountain banks, or is such a mighty current. 
When we are between the towering bastions of the 
Cascade Range, there is nothing comparable to it 
on the eastern river. 

Above the Cascade Locks the river has widened 
out until it resembles a lake. In this still water is a 
picturesque little island, pine covered. Below the 
locks the river starts suddenly away down a steep 

196 



THE COLUMBIA RIVER 



incline, all in rushing rapids, flinging up foam and 
filling the air with a roar of sound. Across the still 
water above the locks we see the river boats gliding 
toward their pier on the Washington side. The old 
Block House is seen perched upon an eminence by 
the river side, and the whole of this fine scene is 
backed by a noble mass of mountain called the 
Eagle Crag. 

A FISH WHEEL 

There will be few, if any, more interesting sights 
to the tourist from the East than the various fish 
wheels in operation along the Columbia; and, if, in 
addition to the catching of salmon, the visitor should 
be fortunate enough to witness the capture of a big 
sturgeon, it would be something to remember. The 
writer witnessed the capture of three sturgeon, and 
can certify to the interest of the operation. The 
largest of these was over 400 pounds in weight, and 
lacked but three inches of being eleven feet in length. 
It is affirmed by an official fisherman that on one 
memorable occasion forty sturgeon were captured 
in a single morning. 

The roe of the fish is put up in kegs and exported 
to Russia, where, as every one knows, it is a favorite 
dish. Thus the sturgeon that come up the river 
furnish the caviar which competes with that taken 
from fish which come up the Volga from the Cas- 
pian Sea. 

Considerable fishing is done for sturgeon in the 
winter time. Salted lamprey can be seen barreled 

197 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

to be used as bait in the fishing, which is done at 
the breathing holes of the river, and the lamprey is a 
bait at which the sturgeon never fail to bite. 

Dipping for salmon may be seen at several points 
along the river, most notably at Cascade Locks. 
This is a rather dangerous but very lucrative method 
of fishing. 

ECHO CLIFF AND BAY 

As we pass Echo Bay, beneath the cliff of hexago- 
nal, columnar basalt we surely acquire enough of 
the grand and romantic. 

Rocks sublime to human art a sportive semblance bore, 

And yellow lichens covered all the clime 

Like moonlit battlements, and towns decayed by time. 

This great cliff is the last of all those towering ram- 
parts that the traveler has passed by since leaving 
Hood River. Between these bastions, running back 
to the snow cave of Hood, are found the glens in 
which are the numerous beautiful falls that 
empty their waters into the Columbia. Latourelle, 
Bridal Veil, Multnomah, Horse Tail Falls, and 
Oneonta Gorge or Glen, and the superb falls in the 
glen close by Bonneville — all of these come pour- 
ing down between walls "wild and mossed and 
hoary," and they are surrounded by various kinds of 
foliage, drooping, clinging, climbing, a wilderness of 
soft, green leaves. 

Echo Cliff and Bay is close by Rooster Rock, one 
of the most famous landmarks on the Columbia. 

198 



THE COLUMBIA RIVER 



MOUNT ST. HELENS 

Out from the frowning cliffs the noble Columbia 
winds across the plains. Its banks are thickly wooded 
and one might imagine that this was the current of 
the middle Mississippi were it not for the sight of 
those two mighty domes, covered with shining snow, 
that arise in the distance on either hand — on the 
left the graceful cone of Mount Hood, and on 
the right the St. Helens showing over a low, level 
bulwark of hills. 

A beautiful and a wonderful sight that — the two 
old volcano cones, facing each other across the 
wooded valleys, with the broad rolling Columbia 
between! 

How faintly flushed, how phantom fair 

show the two mountains above the cottonwood trees. 
Perhaps we are more impressed by seeing them 
thus, than when we first saw them from farther up 
the stream. If the mountains were deadly enemies 
in the old days, as the Indian legends tell, there is 
little to show it now. Green look the valleys at 
their feet, and softly white their summits. Yet from 
the valley of the Willamette, there must have been 
strange sights, when the fierce cannonadings were 
going on from these old earth rents. 

THE LOWER COLUMBIA 

While the Upper Columbia abounds in scenery 
of wild and picturesque beauty, the tourist must 

199 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

by no means neglect a trip down the lower 
river from Portland to Astoria and Ilwaco and the 
numerous resorts on the beach. The facilities offered 
by the splendid fleet of steamers of the Oregon Rail- 
road & Navigation Company render this a delightful 
excursion. On a clear day one may enjoy, at the 
junction of the Willamette with the Columbia, a 
wonderful sight — five mountain peaks are in view: 
St. Helens, Mount Jefferson, Mount Adams, Mount 
Hood, and Mount Rainier. 

Small villages and landing places line the shores, 
almost too numerous to mention. There are, of the 
more important, St. Johns, St. Helens, Columbia City, 
Kalama, Rainier, Westport, Cathlamet, Knappa, and 
Astoria at the mouth, a busy place. Salmon can- 
neries there are without number. It is about 98 miles 
by the chart from Portland to Astoria. Across the 
bay is the pretty town of Ilwaco. Fort Canby and 
Cape Disappointment look across to Fort Stevens 
and Point Adams. Across the bar at the mouth of 
the river, the breakers sweep with terrible force, and 
here the Government has built jetties far out to sea, 
and deepened the channel, so that ships from the 
Orient slip safely through, ascend the broad stream, 
and moor alongside the wharves at Portland. From 
Astoria one may drive or go by rail 1 8 miles to Clatsop 
Beach, famous for its clams, crab, and trout. 



NOTE: For full and detailed information see "The Columbia River 
from Source to Sea," published by the Passenger Department, Union Pacific 
Railroad. 



200 



APPLE LAND 

"How little thought is given to commonplace 
things may be illustrated by the apple. We could, 
perhaps, jot down off-hand more facts about the date 
or fig, the olive, the banana, or the orange. To most 
of us apples are just apples — big and little, red and 
green, fresh and dried. 

"We have always been intimate with them and so 
we have never given them a thought. As boys we 
have climbed the easy trunks of the old trees, stolen 
the windfall, and stoned the beauty 'way out on the 
bending branch til it capitulated, or the man got 
after us. 

"And yet we should know much about this abun- 
dant product as it is the most important one of the 
temperate zones; and indeed it is the only fruit that 
has passed the bounds of luxury and become a staple 
article. 

"No fruit of today is of more ancient lineage, none 
more aristocratic in associations of the past or more 
revered in remote times; none that has responded 
more luxuriously to the wiles of cultivation. 

'That they were cultivated by the Lake Dwellers 
of Switzerland in the Age of Stone is evidenced by 
finding carbonized specimens of two varieties, cut 
lengthwise and dried, in the palafittes of the lakes of 
Neufchatel, Lombardy, and elsewhere. 

'The folk-lore of Germany and Scandinavia is full 
of apple trees and golden apples. In Roman times 

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their cultivation reached a high pitch; the quality 
and productiveness increased by grafting. 

'We all recall the familiar biblical expressions: 
'Keep law as the apple of thine eye;' I raised thee 
up under an apple tree;' 'Apples of gold in pictures 
of silver;' 'Comfort me with apples,' etc. 

"Shakespeare in 'The Tempest' makes a char- 
acter say: 'He will carry this island home in his 
pocket and give it to his son for an apple.' In 
'Merchant of Venice' he likens a villain with a 
smiling cheek to 'a goodly apple rotten at the 
heart.' Another of this poet's references identifies 
the pippin, which seems ever to have been a 
superior variety, as thus: 'You shall see mine 
orchard, where in an arbor we will eat last year s 
pippins of my own grafting.' 

"Milton, as we remember, terms the fruit of the 
tree of knowledge apples, and Dore thus pictures it. 

"In Pliny's time the Romans had twenty-two varie- 
ties and he asserted 'There are apples that have 
ennobled the countries whence they came . . . our 
best apples will immortalize their first grafters forever.' 

'The old Saxon coronation benediction read: 
'Bless, O Lord, the courage of this prince, and 
prosper the work of his hands; and by Thy blessing 
may this land be filled with apples, with the fruit 
and dew of heaven, from the top of the ancient 
mountains, from the apples of the eternal hills, from 
the fruits of the earth and its fullness.' 

"Apples were held in high honor and reverence 
by the earliest inhabitants of Great Britain. On the 

203 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

eve of Epiphany the farmer and his workmen, with a 
large pitcher of cider, went to the orchard and there, 
encircling one of the best bearing trees, drank the 
following toast: 

"Here's to the old apple tree, 
Whence thou may'st budd, and whence thou may'st blow; 
And whence thou may'st bear apples enow; 
Hats full! Caps full! 
Bushel — bushel — sacks full 
And my pockets full too! Huzza! 

"In its wild state the apple tree (commonly called 
the crab) is found over a considerable portion of 
Europe. Its native region is generally conceded to 
be southern Europe. It was brought to England 
by the Romans, and to this country by the French 
Jesuits. 

"Very early in the history of horticulture the 
apple attracted attention by its improvability; that is 
to say it belongs to the class of culture plants. 
Among others cultivated in the middle ages were 
Bitter Sweets, mentioned by Chaucer. 

"In 1688 there were seventy-eight varieties culti- 
vated in the neighborhood of London, and since 
then there have been developed about two thou- 
sand varieties. 

"Generally speaking the apple is indifferent to 
locality; it will grow anywhere. It has followed 
civilization in this country from New England to 
the Pacific; if we are to believe the story of John 
Apple-Seed, it got a great part of the way far in 
advance of it. 

204 



APPLE LAND 



"John, so the legend goes, was a simple-hearted 
body, who loved to roam through the forests of the 
Northwest in advance of his fellows consorting 
alternately with the red man and the white. He 
was esteemed by those who knew him, a vagabond 
who just loafed. He had his use in the world, 
however. 

"When among white folks he saved the seeds of 
all the best apples he met with, and carefully pre- 
served and carried them with him. When far away 
from his white friends he would select an open spot 
of ground, prepare the soil and plant the seeds upon 
the principle, perhaps, of the old Spanish custom 
that he owed so much to posterity. 

"It is probable that the trees credited to John 
Apple-Seed were those planted by the Jesuits. 

"Massachusetts and Connecticut grew apples at a 
very early period and New York received them from 
those States. In turn, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
and Iowa took them from New York; and thus 
gradually they meandered to California, Washington, 
and Oregon, where they have attained their greatest 
commercial value which must be accepted as the 
best estimate of their quality. 

'There are about a dozen essentials to a good 
apple, in addition to productiveness, such as rich- 
ness (the relative proportions of sugar and acid), 
flavor, firmness, color, form, size, uniformity, culinary 
qualities, good keeping, etc. 

"In rapidly running over this subject we find there 
are many varieties of good apples, and of the good 

205 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

ones the pippins seem in all ages and at present to 
be preferred. 

"It gives an idea, too, of the development of lan- 
guage from the crude slang of the barn and field to 
the aristocracy of the dictionary. When we hear the 
term pippin applied to a person or thing, it seems 
the highest sort of compliment; it is the superlative 
of estimate. 

"All adown the ages the apple has been notable 
among the families of fruit. Beneath the branches 
of the first of its kind Adam whispered the 'sweetest 
story ever told,' and this same old story, ever new 
to willing ears, may be heard today under 'the shade 
of the old apple tree.' " — George DeH avert. 



Thanks, just and eloquent historian and eulogist! 

After the panegyric we may deal with certain 
unpoetical but important statistics which will be 
taken, commercially, as "in praise of the apple. 
Both Kansas and Nebraska grow heavy apple crops, 
and Colorado has won name and fame as a producer; 
Wyoming, not of age yet, is making a wonderful 
showing; and Utah is remembered and blessed by 
every old mountaineer who recalls the sixties, when 
"Salt Lake apples and peaches" were the only taste 
of Heaven between the Missouri River and the Pacific 
Coast. And Idaho was the blue ribbon winner for 
apples at the World's Fair, Chicago. 

The use of the "personal testimonial" is as a rule 
to be deprecated, smacking as it does of patent medi- 

206 



APPLE LAND 



cine cure-alls, but the straightforward story of the 
"Man on the Ground" is the nearest we can get to 
the severe truth when discussing any form of agri- 
culture or horticulture. Here are a few letters 
addressed to the Boise Commercial Club: 

Gentlemen: Replying to your inquiry concerning 
my prune crops for the season of 1905 and 1906, 
would say that I bought 80 acres of land 4 miles 
from Boise in 1893, paying therefor $30 per acre. 
I set 40 acres of the same to prunes. Our 1905 
crop grossed us $7,71 2.33, and the 1906 crop grossed 
us $7,529.98. Yours truly, 

A. V. EICHELBERGER. 

Gentlemen: Replying to your inquiry concerning 
my most successful crop, and original cost of land, 
would say that I bought 10 acres one and one-half 
miles from Boise in 1900, paying therefor $50 per 
acre. In 1906 I raised 20,000 boxes of strawberries 
on 3 acres of ground which I sold at an average price 
of 8 cents per box, or about $533 per acre. 

Believing this covers the points on which you 
desired information, I remain, 

Yours truly, 

S. F. RUSSELL. 

Gentlemen: Replying to your inquiry, would say 
I took an eight-year lease on 160 acres of ground 2\ 
miles from the postoffice five years ago. At that time 
I was offered this land at $75 per acre. Similar land 
in this location is now selling at $200 to $300 per 
acre. In 1905, I planted 6 acres to potatoes and sold 
the crop for $1,780, and saved about $300 worth for 
my own use and seeding. In 1906 I planted 15 
acres in potatoes and realized from it $3,760, and 
saved about $300 worth for my own use and seeding. 

207 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

In 1906 I planted a field of 60 acres in oats, and 
they averaged 103 bushels per acre. 

Yours truly, 

A. P. WOLFE. 

Gentlemen: Replying to your inquiry concerning 
my most successful crop, original cost of land, and 
present value, would say I bought 25 acres in March, 
1900, about 7 miles from Boise, on the mesa, paying 
$20 per acre for raw land; same land is now selling at 
$100 per acre unimproved and up to $300 improved. 

In 1906 I sold 12,798 quarts of strawberries on 
If acres for first crop and 2,280 quarts for second 
crop, marketing as late as November 17, 1906. 

My total gross income from berries from this I4 
acres was $1,196.75 for the season of 1906. This 
does not include berries used at home and berries 
used by pickers, who have free use of all the 
berries they want for lunch while picking, which 
would make 500 or more quarts. 

Yours truly, 

JOHN H. WAIT. 

The orchard of Dr. H. P. Ustick, a few miles 
from Boise, with 35 acres of Italian prunes, yielded 
the owner last year a net return of $10,000. For the 
prune crop from 5 acres, crated on the tract, its 
owner, Mr. Limtchger, received $2,800. One little 
orchard of 2 acres, belonging to E. H. Heller, 
produced $600 in prunes, loose, in 1908. In the 
years of bearing, the orchard has never failed to yield 
a full crop. 

Six years ago O. M. Wolfe paid for 10 acres in 
the Boise Valley, in the sagebrush, but with water 
supplied, $1,100. He began at once to improve 

208 



APPLE LAND 



his land, setting out fruit trees and berries. Today 
he has 9 acres of orchard just coming to bearing, 
6 acres of apples, 3 of prunes, cherries, and apricots. 
Among the young trees he has 2 acres of strawberries 
and the other bush berries. Last year he took from 
the place $1,500 in strawberries, $200 in other 
berries, 6 tons of timothy, besides all that he needed 
for his own living. His profits were well over $1 ,000. 
Out of his profits for six years he has built a house 
worth $3,000. He has two good horses, keeps a 
cow, chickens, etc., and lives like a lord. He is rear- 
ing a family of three children, has money in the bank, 
and has refused $10,000 for his place. 

THE STORY OF A WELL DICGER 

William W. Hufton is a young German mechanic. 
His 10 acres of land cost him $2,000 eight years 
ago, and he went in debt to buy it. During the eight 
years he worked at his trade — digging wells of late 
years — and developed this land. This year he has 
6 acres of alfalfa, \i acres in raspberries, one-half 
acre in strawberries. His hay will yield $150, his 
strawberries $100, the other berries $200. A flock 
of 100 hens and 300 chickens will yield over $100 
and "chicken every day for lunch." Besides he 
feeds two horses and a cow. He has built a good 
two-story cement house and has bought a fine touring 
car. It will take $10,000 to buy his place. 

An acre of apple trees, in full bearing, will yield 
three to four hundred boxes a year of fancy fruit, 

209 



_ 




APPLE LAND 



and on many tracts double or treble that. By "fancy" 
is meant of large size, symmetrical, and free from 
bruise or blemish. These will bring from $1.50 to 
$2 per box and up. The "seconds," and the culls 
used for cider and vinegar, will easily pay all the 
expenses of a commercial orchard, so that there turns 
from the fancy fruit are a clear profit. 

Three hundred dollars an acre is a most con- 
servative estimate for the net returns from an orchard 
of good varieties, properly handled, in the Boise 
Valley. 

BOISE-PAYETTE IRRIGATION PROJECT 

This is one of the largest irrigation projects the 
Government has undertaken under the Reclamation 
Act, and contemplates a total expenditure of about 
$11,000,000. Nearly $2,000,000 has already been 
appropriated, and contracts have been let for its 
expenditure. 

A dam across the Boise River, about eight miles 
above Boise, is being built; a canal 40 feet wide in 
the bottom, 80 at the top, and 12 feet deep is being 
constructed, to carry the water out onto the land and 
store it in the Deer Flat reservoir, some 25 miles east 
of Boise, and other smaller reservoirs along the line. 
When this system is completed there will be 305,000 
acres of land in cultivation in the Boise Valley, where 
there are 100,000 acres in partial cultivation at the 
present time. 

Although Great Britain has for ages given great 
attention 1 to apple cultivation and produces large 

211 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

quantities and numerous varieties, yet the people 
over there esteem the American Newton Pippin most 
of all, giving also much praise to the William's 
Favorite, Astrakhan, Gravenstein, Baldwin, and 
Spitzenbergen. 

According to official reports, Great Britain took 
from us 1,208,909 barrels of apples, the value given 
being $3,751,375. 

That they are a notable factor in staple produc- 
tion is demonstrated by an annual crop in the United 
States and Canada of about one hundred million 
barrels. This country is not only forging ahead in 
volume, but in quality. As related to the product of 
orchard fruits the apple has attained 55 per cent of 
the total in trees and 82.8 per cent of product. 

As to the excellence in quality, the product last 
year of Yellow Newton Pippins grown on less than 
an acre in the Rogue River Valley, Oregon, which 
is about 350 miles south of Portland, was 815 boxes 
(about one bushel each) and the lot was sold in 
London at a net price to the grower of $1,711.50. 
The particular 3-acre orchard from which this fruit 
was taken produced an average of $500 an acre 
a year for the past eight years. 

In 1905 a lot was sold in London at $5.43; 1,000 
boxes were sold in Edinburgh, Scotland, at $4.83 per 
box; at the same time apples grown in Scotland were 
selling at 30 cents a bushel. 

In 1907 an orchard of 8 acres, in the same region, 
near Ashland, Oregon, yielded 6,000 boxes of New- 

212 



APPLE LAND 



ton Pippins which were sold at the orchard for 
$2,000 an acre. 

The highest price ever paid for apples from any 
orchard in the United States was for Hood River, 
Spitzenbergens, and Newtons — "the former ranging 
from $2.60 to $3 — and the latter from $2.25 to 
$2.50 per bushel box. 

Among the recent notable purchases of this 
Oregon fruit land was a $35,000 tract bought by 
Mrs. Potter Palmer for her son. 

In California, 100 miles south of San Francisco, 
there are great orchards from which are shipped 
annually 1,000 cars of apples to England, Germany, 
and other European countries. It is famous for 
Bellefleurs and Pippins. 

Then there is the Washington cherry tree, which 
has a record of 1,500 pounds of Royal Anne in a 
year. 

In a letter to the Medford, Idaho, Commercial 
Club, dated December 7, 1907, H. D. Helms says: 
"For the seven years that I have owned my apple 
orchard, my yearly average profits have been $791 
per acre. The orchard consists of between seven 
and eight acres in Newton Pippins. The soil is 
red hill land. This year I marketed 6,000 boxes, 
netting me $2,000 per acre. I have never failed 
to get a good crop. 

Fred. H. Hopkins says, "From 16^ acres of Winter 
Nellis pears on my orchard, near Central Point, 
I sold, in 1907, $19,000 worth of pears. The pears 
netted $2.50 a box f. o. b. orchard.' 

213 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

G. A. Hover purchased a 10-acre orchard near 
Medford in June, 1906, for $5,600. The crops 
for 1905 and 1907 netted $7,854.34, leaving 
$2,254.34 clear above the purchase price. At auc- 
tion in New York City, $4,266.80 for a carload of 
pears being 546 boxes, an average of $8.20 per box, 
was realized on September 30, 1907, by Rae & 
Hatfield to whom this car was consigned by the Bear 
Creek orchard, a few miles south of Medford. 

S. L. Bennett, 2 miles north of Medford, realized, 
in 1908, from 2h acres in Newton Pippins and Ben 
Davis apples, 3,500 boxes of merchantable fruit 
which brought $5,250 or $2,100 per acre. 

The Portland Oregonian of September 7, 1909, 
contains this telegram from Hood River: 

"Joseph Steinhardt of the commission firm of 
Steinhardt & Kelly, the New York firm that bought 
the output of the Hood River Apple Growers Associa- 
tion last year, today set the ball rolling again purchasing 
the entire crop handled by the union at a gross figure 
that will total over $150,000. The sale includes 
the purchase of 60,000 to 70,000 boxes of fancy 
fruit or about 125 cars, and it is claimed that it will 
be the biggest deal made this year by one firm." 

The following item can not be classed as an 
"indication" of the trend in the fruit-growing business 
of Oregon, for it is simply a sober recital of the facts 
in the case, and appeared in the Portland Oregonian 
of February 17, 1910: 

MEDFORD, Ore., February 16, 1910.— (Special.) 
C. M. Speck, of Spokane, and his associates have 

214 



APPLE LAND 



purchased the 605-acre orchard tract owned by Cap- 
tain Gordon Voorhies, a prominent clubman of Port- 
land, known as the Burrell orchard, paying $500,000. 
The deal was closed late this afternoon, through John 
D. Olwell, and the new owners will take possession 
April 1. For a month past negotiations have been 
under way. 

This is thought to be the largest deal ever com- 
pleted in the Northwest in bearing-orchard property. 
The Burrell orchard holds many of the world's records 
of this section. One block of Yellow Newtons, 
consisting of 80 acres of 8 and 9 year old trees, is 
especially valuable. The orchard is situated 2 
miles south of the paved streets of Medford. It 
differs from most of the pioneer orchard tracts of 
the valley in having been planted with an eye to the 
future. It is known as the commercial pioneer 
orchard of the Northwest. 

It was to this tract that J. H. Stewart devoted 
much of his time. Much of it was planted under his 
direct supervision. 

One of Mr. Specks associates in the venture is 
M. G. Neely, of Spokane. That Mr. Neely should 
turn his attention to the Rogue River Valley is an 
indication of the attention this section is attracting 
throughout the world. 

The orchard was recently taken over by Captain 
Gordon Voorhies from the Burrell Orchard Company. 
Not long ago, Captain Voorhies announced his inten- 
tion of spending a portion of each year personally 
overseeing the property, but owing to its sale he may 
change his plans. Although this orchard has made 
many good records in the past few years, its record 
for the season just closed is in itself a criterion of 
what a Rogue River Valley orchard can do. The 
orchard shipped forty carloads of pears from forty- 
eight acres, which averaged $2 a box at the orchard, 

215 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

or $40,000 for the crop. The Bartletts netted 
$1,000 an acre and for the past nine years have 
netted $600 an acre. One carload of Bartletts this 
year sold for $4.2 5 a box in New York City, the high 
record of the pear for Bartletts. 

But there are other localities equally prolific. 
Albany, in Linn County, Roseburg and the famous 
Umpqua Valley, Creswell at the head of the Wil- 
lamette Valley, Grants Pass, Corvallis, Hermiston, 
Newberg; the Touchet Valley in Washington, the 
great Yakima country; Wenatchee, the home of the 
big red apple — but enough of facts and figures, 
names and places. This is Apple Land — from the 
Missouri River to the coast — anywhere and every- 
where in this peculiarly forsaken spot known as the 
"Great American Desert! 




Twin Falls, Ida! 



21 6 



CRATER LAKE 

Some day, when you are in Portland, the "Rose 
City," and breathing the soft Italian air of Oregon, 
take a run down to Klamath Falls in the southern 
part of the State, and visit Crater Lake. Professor 
LeConte, the great scientist of the University of 
California, used to say, 'Yellowstone has its glories, 
and so has the Yosemite and Crater Lake; but they 
are entirely dissimilar. You can not compare unlike 
things. There is but one Crater Lake." 

The difficulty of reaching Crater Lake has been 
the chief obstacle to its fame and popularity in the 
past. Originally it was a pack-train expedition of ten 
or twelve days for the round trip from the nearest 
railroad point. Later, more or less primitive wagon 
roads shortened the time and modified the hard- 
ships. Now it is simply a matter of a couple of days 
in each direction; and comfortable conveyances, with 
still more comfortable places to lodge and dine, have 
robbed the trip of its terrors and made it attractive 
and delightful. 

One can now leave Portland by the Southern 
Pacific Sunday morning and arrive on the rim of the 
Crater Wednesday morning, traveling via Weed, Cali- 
fornia, and Klamath Falls, a distance of about 580 
miles, and all but 55 by rail and boat. 

The trip via Medford is equally attractive and 
can be made in much shorter time though the dis- 
tance by conveyance is much longer. Leaving Port- 

217 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

land at 1:30 o'clock Sunday morning a party of not 
less than four, having made previous arrangements, 
can reach the Crater by 5:00 p. m. on Monday; and 
starting on return the following morning can arrive in 
Portland at 11:15 o'clock Wednesday night. 

The location of Crater Lake is on the summit and 
in the very heart of the Cascade Range, inland from 
the coast by an air line of about 115 miles, and 65 
miles north of Oregon's southern boundary, and 
its name describes it perfectly. It is a lake in a huge 
mountain crater, whose extreme depth is approxi- 
mately 2,000 feet, and its walls rise abruptly above its 
surface some 2,000 feet higher in irregular and 
extremely picturesque conformations. So nearly 
vertical are its walls in many places that one may 
stand on the edge of the rim and drop a pebble into 
the water. Human figures on the water's edge, 
viewed from the Crater's rim, appear like dark objects 
hardly more than a finger's length. 

The Crater is slightly elliptical in shape and 
about 5+ miles in diameter at its widest point. 
Near the shore on the western side a huge cinder 
cone, remarkably symmetrical in form, rises 845 
feet above the surface of the lake, and is known 
as Wizard Island. This peculiar formation also has 
a crater, but it is only 100 feet deep and most of 
the year contains snow instead of water. Near the 
opposite, or eastern, shore a jagged rock rises abruptly 
out of the lake to a height of some sixty or seventy 
feet, and, because of its striking resemblance to a full 
rigged sailing vessel, has been named the Phantom 

218 



CRATER LAKE 



Ship. These are the only islands in the lake and the 
only natural interruptions in its profoundly placid 
and solemn aspect. 

So far as can be ascertained there is absolutely 
no inlet or outlet to the lake, and its origin, the 
source of its phenomenally pure and crystalline 
waters, and the strange formations discernible at 
every turn, are matters of mere conjecture, even 
among the noted scientists who have made the subject 
a serious study for years. The generally accepted 
theory is that the mountain in which the lake now 
rests was at one time a mighty volcano towering three 
miles high; that after it became spent it settled within 
itself and disappeared taking with it seventeen cubic 
miles of volcanic matter into the bowels of the earth. 

Whatever may have been the real cause, the 
result speaks for itself. As W. G. Steel writes, 
in the Crater Lake edition of Steel Points: 'The 
overpowering impressiveness of its grandeur can not 
be described, and no idea of its masterful influence 
over the human mind can be conveyed by words. It 
must be seen to be appreciated. It stands alone in 
its class in all this world. It has no peer, no rival to 
divide the charms, but stands alone, the only 
Crater Lake." 

The lake was first discovered in 1853 by John A. 
Hillman and a party of prospectors. Because of the 
deep ultramarine blue of its waters it was then 
named Deep Blue Lake, but it has since been known 
as Lake Mystery, Lake Majesty, Hole in the Ground, 
and, finally, Crater Lake, which most natural name 

219 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

was given by a party from Jacksonville in the summer 
of 1869 and will no doubt always be retained. 

Until comparatively recent date the huge moun- 
tain containing the crater had no name. It was 
simply one of the irregular upheavals forming the 
Cascade Range, and differed from numberless others 
only in the possession of this mysterious lake. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1896, the Mazamas, a mountain- 
climbing club of Oregon, selected Crater Lake for 
their outing, and reached there some seventy-five 
strong in August. On the twenty-first of the month 
the mountain was christened Mount Mazama by 
Miss Fay Fuller, one of the party, and that is now 
its official title. 

Although discovered at quite an early period, 
almost nothing was known of the lake until 1885, 
and the limited fame it now enjoys is probably due 
more to the interest and energy of W. G. Steel, a 
noted mountaineer and writer of Oregon, than to any 
other agency. In the summer of 1885 Mr. Steel 
started a movement to secure a National Park which 
would include Crater Lake, and in January following 
President Cleveland signed a proclamation withdraw- 
ing ten townships from the market. Because of a 
strong opposition, however, no bill passed Congress 
and the project lay dormant for many years. During 
the session of 1901-2 it was again set in motion, and 
by dint of a most vigorous campaign, supported by 
the entire press and populace of Oregon, a bill was 
passed and signed May 22, 1902, creating the Crater 
Lake National Park. Since then it has been under 

2 20 



CRATER LAKE 



Federal supervision, and, although little has been 
expended as yet in its improvement, it will in due 
time no doubt receive its proportionate share of 
National favor along with Yellowstone, Yosemite, 
and the rest of Uncle Sams playgrounds. 

As is nearly always the case with the singularly 
weird creations of Nature, the early history of Crater 
Lake is blended with legend and myth. The Indians 
were awe stricken in its presence and approached it 
with fear and trembling. They believed it to be the 
dwelling place of the Great Spirit and inhabited by 
monsters called "llaos." Not until very recently 
have their superstitions faded and they have dared to 
visit and enjoy its beauties freely. 

Nor is this fact surprising. To this day — and it 
will probably always be so — the scene exerts a 
strange influence over those who gaze upon it for 
the first time. Sometimes the sensation may be 
likened to terror, which wears away only after 
repeated or prolonged visits. Then, as the mind 
begins to grasp the reality, the grandeur and majesty 
of the scene is supreme. 



22 1 









' 




a 

u 

o 



O 



w 

CO 

a 

o 



ON THE HEIGHTS 

They say in Colorado that there are in the State 
one hundred mountain peaks (more or less) over 
10,000 feet high. It may be so, for there are peaks 
to spare in that commonwealth of mountain grandeurs. 
There seems to be a never-ending procession of 
lonely summits from the Wyoming line to the plains 
of the Panhandle in Texas. Some are inaccessible 
and well nigh unapproachable. Others, in spite of 
their splendid fame, are "base, common, and popular." 
Pike's Peak, the giant of the range, has a cog road 
riveted to his hoary sides; McClellan has a switch- 
back, and other lesser lights are harnessed with the 
ignominy of "easy ascent." By virtue of his royal 
origin, a mountain demands homage, toil, heroic exer- 
tion, to come into the inner presence and speak face 
to face. And the imperial order of Mountain 
Monarchs is magnificently represented in the Empire 
of the West along the Union Pacific and allied lines. 
All over Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, the Cascade 
Range and the Sierras, these watchers of the sky, 
"thrust up themselves for shows" — as rugged old 
Chapman translates Homers sonorous line. 

WHITNEY AND SHASTA 

The Pacific Coast region from the Mexican line 
to Alaska fairly bristles with these "Princes of 

223 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

the Range.'' Mount Whitney, near the southern 
extremity of the Sierra Nevada, lifts its helmet-shaped 
crest to a height of nearly 14,700 feet. Far to the 
north 500 miles away, Shasta, a colossal volcanic 
cone, rises 14,440 feet above sea level, marking the 
northern extremity of the range. "Just below the 
summit of Shasta,'' says John Muir, "hot, sulphurous 
gases and vapor issue from irregular fissures, mingled 
with spray derived from melting snow, the last feeble 
expression of the mighty force that built the moun- 
tain. Not in one great convulsion was Shasta given 
birth. The crags of the summit and the sections 
exposed by the glaciers down the sides display enough 
of its internal framework to prove that compara- 
tively long periods of quiescence intervened between 
many distinct eruptions, during which the cooling lava 
ceased to flow, and became permanent additions to 
the bulk of the growing mountain — eruption succeed- 
ing eruption. . . . It is known that more than 
a thousand years of cool calm have intervened 
between violent eruptions. Like gigantic geysers 
spouting molten rock instead of water, volcanoes work 
and rest, and we have no sure means of knowing 
whether they are dead when still, or only sleeping.'' 
But what a celestial railroad ride that is — coming 
down from the golden fruit lands of southern Oregon, 
rising to the lower slopes of the throne, and then to 
wind for half the day around the feet of mighty 
Shasta; traveling labyrinths of wooded heights — flash- 
ing over many a mountain stream, and then at sunset 
falling by gentle gradations to the citrus belt calm 

224 



ON THE HEIGHTS 



of upper California, and farther on to dream dreams 
in the tranquil summerland of the Sacramento Valley. 
That Shasta route trip from Portland to San Francisco 
is one of the never-to-be-forgotten memories. 

MOUNT HOOD 

Oregon and Washington are veritable mountain 
paradises. From the deck of a steamer at the mouth 
of the Willamette, as we swing down the river 
from Portland and join the Columbia, five of these 
fairy domes in air are in plain sight — a wonderf ul vision: 
St. Helens, Mount Jefferson, Mount Adams, Mount 
Hood, and Mount Rainier. St. Helens, Queen of 
the Cascade Range, a fair and graceful cone — 
exquisite mantling snows sweep along her shoulders 
toward the bristling pines. Not far from her base, 
the Columbia crashes through the mountains in a 
magnificent chasm, and Mount Hood, a vigorous 
prince, rises in a keen pyramid nearly 12,000 feet. 

The ascent of Mount Hood begins at Hood River, 
66 miles from Portland, and starts abruptly from 
the gorge of the Columbia River. 

Every moment the road presents some new and 
interesting aspect. Like all mountain highways, it 
follows more or less the inequalities of the ground; 
descending into valleys, climbing in a truly astonish- 
ing way the unavoidable hills; crossing swift-flowing 
scenery in the former, showing far glimpses of moun- 
tain streams in the latter, now and then the lofty 

225 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

peak of Mount Adams sweeping into view, distant 
more than 35 miles northward. Various kinds of 
forest trees, great and small, press upon the highway; 
flowers too numerous to name, if names were known, 
besprinkle the glades, or grow pale and modest amid 
the dark, cool depths of the woods. 

Finally we reach the crest of the immense spur — 
plunge quickly down the opposite side over a steep 
and winding road, and then — the Summit House — the 
Cloudcap Inn. 

Cloudcap Inn is a picturesque hostelry, built of 
silver fir logs, and rooted securely on the edge of a 
precipice on the north side of Mount Hood. It is 
within fifteen minutes' walk of the perpetual ice and 
snow of Eliot glacier, from which grand storehouse 
the Inn draws its supply of ice. 

The summit of Mount Hood is not attainable 
except for experts in mountain climbing. At an 
altitude of 1 1,000 feet, but a prominent projection on 
the north side of the mountain, is the ultima thule for 
the majority of visitors. Therefrom the scene may 
well be described as boundless in extent, beauty, and 
variety. To the south of us, rising like a shaft from 
where we stand, the impending splendor of the central 
dome overtops us more than 1,000 feet; on the east, 
in the immediate foreground, the vast field of snow, 
disclosing by its sweeping undulations the immov- 
able inequalities of the mountain; directly on the 
west the mountain seems to have been cleft by sub- 
terranean convulsions and an enormous segment 
sunk away, leaving a sheer precipice two or three 

226 



ON THE HEIGHTS 



thousand feet high. From the foot of this wall 
stretches a glacier, broken into gigantic crevasses, 
whose sky-blue edges are often but the portals of 
grottoes filled with strange and fantastic ornamenta- 
tions — fit sepulchres for ice kings. Then, as far as 
the eye can see, extend forest-covered hills and val- 
leys, lakes, and streams, Portland itself being invisi- 
ble only because of the hazy condition of the air. 
To the north the broad Cascade Range, fir clothed 
and here and there snow tipped, its upheaved masses 
subdued and dwarfed by the three mighty domes of 
Mounts Adams, Rainier, and St. Helens, which 
appear at distances varying from fifty to one hundred 
and fifty miles. Beautiful and fitting seems the 
circlet of clouds— the saint's rosary — that hangs 
around St. Helens' crest. Through this magnificent 
picture from the extreme east, where roll the bound- 
less plains of the inland empire, to the extreme west, 
the Columbia River flashes like a scimitar blade that 
has cleft in twain, by a titanic stroke, plain and rock- 
ribbed mountain. 

KINGLY TACOMA 

There are eight glaciers, each from seven to 
twelve miles long, radiating from the ice-capped 
dome-like summit of Mount Tacoma, and these gla- 
ciers form the sources of the principal rivers of the 
State of Washington. Tacoma ("nourishing breast") 
the Indian called the noble mountain, and when we 
appreciate the deep significance of the aboriginal 

227 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

name and all that it implies we do not yield this 
poetical and truthful appellation to Admiral — French- 
English-Huguenot — Regnier or Rainier, even if 
CaptainGeorge Vancouver did compliment his friend 
and powerful patron by giving the Admiral's name 
to the most gorgeous mountain on our western 
coast. For have we not the unimpeachable dictum 
of Jim Bridger: "When an Injun names a place or a 
thing he always means sumthin'!" 

Hon. John T. Bibb of Tacoma has written most 
entertainingly of the great mountain: 

WHERE RIVERS ARE BORN 

"If we apply a geometrical figure to Mount Tacoma, 
making it a pyramid of sixteen sides, the base of 
each side will be a separate colossal glacier extend- 
ing down to a depth of about 4,000 feet. Back in 
the morning of time this mountain was an active 
volcano, emitting rivers of lava that poured down its 
rocky sides, furrowing them into monstrous canons. 
As ages went by the volcano became extinct and the 
canons were filled with snow that was gradually 
packed and formed into solid ice, making what we 
call glaciers. A dozen rivers that water and drain 
the great valley west of the Cascade Mountains are 
formed of melted snow and ice gathered about 
Mount Tacoma, and it is not visionary to assume 
that some of these rivers may one day be gathered 
into one great stream and conducted through the 

228 



ON THE HEIGHTS 



Cascade Mountains by tunnel and used to irrigate 
the vast arid plains between the Columbia River and 
the Cascade Mountains. 

"Hemmed in between the rivers, on every side of 
the mountain, are natural parks extending from the 
line of perpetual snow down into the valley, and 
abounding in flowers, shrubbery, luxuriant foliage, 
and riotous streams. The handiwork of man is not 
seen here; Nature alone could assemble these things 
into such perfect harmony, and blend them into such 
surpassing beauty under widely-varying climatic 
conditions. From temperate heat and tropical ver- 
dure it is but a step to Arctic cold and frigid bleak- 
ness. Hugging up against glaciers, delicate flowers 
grow in gardens of brilliant verdure. These moun- 
tain parks are warmed by peculiar reflections of the 
sun's rays which seem to be focused only on certain 
favored spots. 

RAINIER NATIONAL PARK 

"Rainier Park, of which Mount Tacoma is the 
central gem, lies about 70 miles southeast of Tacoma 
and contains nearly 400 square miles. It was 
reserved by the Government on account of its great 
natural interest, its marvelous scenery, and its mag- 
nificent forests. At the foot of the mountain, four 
miles inside the Park, are located commodious inns 
that afford all the comforts desired by travelers 
visiting the National Reserve. From these inns the 
visitor may leisurely explore this Wonderland, making 

229 




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ON THE HEIGHTS 



the journey either on foot or by trusty ponies well 
trained for the service. He may return each night 
to the inns, or, if he choose, he may find comfortable 
stopping places at temporary inns higher up the 
mountain, where he will be surrounded by scenery 
nowhere excelled on earth. Unlike other world- 
famed mountains that must be viewed from afar as 
cold, inaccessible peaks, the traveler may explore 
every part of Mount Tacoma with comfort, ease, and 
keen delight. Wherever he goes its snow-crowned 
head, towering nearly 15,000 feet above sea level, 
stands before him. It may be ascended to its very 
crater, into which the climber may retreat from 
chilly winds and have the exciting experience of 
comfortably sleeping on a warm lava bed in the 
mouth of a slumbering volcano. At the Park inns, 
within the radius of a few hundred feet, there is a 
colony of healing springs ranging from boiling hot to 
ice cold, some of which, in ages long gone, were 
gushing geysers. Soda, iron, sulphur, salt, magnesia, 
and other mineral springs are grouped as close neigh- 
bors in this colony, and will one day make this a 
famous health resort." 

The journey may be made for a few dollars and 
with no extra preparation, it being common to make 
the trip from Tacoma and return the same day. To 
reach Mount Tacoma by rail, the traveler must take 
the Paradise Park train at Tacoma and after three 
hours' delightful ride over the scenic Tacoma Eastern 
Railway, and one hour by stage over the government 
boulevard, is landed in the Park at the inns. To 

231 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



enjoy a delightful experience that will not come often 
in life, this trip should be once made from Tacoma 
by automobile, going any time between the middle of 
June and the first of October. 

The facts as to the flora of this mountain region 
are almost incredible. Here, at an elevation of 5,000 
feet, is a garden miles square, luxuriantly carpeted 
with flowers, which are woven into a thousand fan- 
tastic figures. In this Park there are 500 different 
varieties of flowers, many of which are found nowhere 
else on the globe and all of which have exceptional 
richness and rare beauty. From the elevation here, 
reached without difficulty, we have a view that will 
cling to memory as long as life lasts. From here we 
see glacial streams, shaded by tropical foliage, as 
they crook and curve among volcanic rocks and giant 
trees, some leaping down the stairways with willful 
rush and deafening roar; others softly murmuring as 
they fall in white spray or spread out in lace-like 
drapery. Flowers peep through the snow, and gar- 
dens, clad in summer verdure, crowd in between 
fields of everlasting ice. 



HIS MAJESTY 

Some day, when you are on the deck of a Puget 
Sound steamer, going to, or coming from, any one 
of the innumerable places of interest on that inland 
sea, you may perhaps have a vision which has been 
described for all time by a master hand: 

232 



ON THE HEIGHTS 



"One becomes aware of a vast, white shadow 
in the water. It is a giant mountain dome of snow in 
the depths of tranquil blue. The smoky haze of an 
Oregon August hid all the length of its lesser ridges 
and left this mighty summit based upon uplifting 
dimness. Only its splendid snows were visible high 
in the unearthly regions of clear, noonday sky. 
Kingly and alone stood this majesty without any 
visible comrade, though far to the north and south 
there were isolated sovereigns. This regal gem the 
Christians have dubbed Mount Rainier, but more 
melodious is its Indian name, 'Tacoma.' 

So wrote Theodore Winthrop, traveler, scholar, 
author, and soldier, sixty years ago. 

A MESSAGE OF CALM 

We talk largely these days, in an amateurish 
sort of way, of 'therapeutic suggestion" and 
so on, but the silent majesty of a great moun- 
tain is the divinest suggestion we may know on 
this earth. The mounds of snow are stateliest; 
calmer, more divine than rugged peaks. ' Our 
lives forever demand and need visual images that 
can be symbols to us of the grandeur or the 
sweetness of repose. So these domes of snow 
silently teach this lesson to every human heart with 
their spiritual uplifting and message of calm, and 
we know them, too, as our noblest friends, our 
most exalting and inspiring comrades, our grandest 
emblems of divine power and divine peace." 

2,33 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



Elevations of Mountain Peaks and Passes 

COLORADO 



Peak Elevation 

Antero 14,245 

Arapahoe 13,520 

Audubon 13,173 

Bald 13,974 

Blanca Peak... 14,390 

Byers 12,778 

Ethel 11,976 

Evans 14,321 

Gray's 14,341 

Harm's 10,906 

Harvard 14,375 

Holy Cross.... 14, 170 

Irwin's 14,336 

James 13,283 

Long's 14,424 



Peak Elevation 

Massive 14,298 

Monitor 13,703 

Princeton 1 4, 1 96 

Pike's 14,111 

Rosalie 13,575 

Yale 14,187 

Uncompahgre.. 14,289 

Pass 

Alpine 12,124 

Argentine 13,286 

Berthoud 14,349 

Boulder 11 ,670 

Breckenridge . .11 ,503 
Cochetopa .... 10,000 
Cunningham. .. 12,090 



Pass Elevation 

Fremont 11 ,320 

Georgia 11 ,476 

Gore 9,570 

Hamilton 12,370 

Hayden 10,780 

Hoosier 10,309 

Lake Fork 12,540 

Loveland 11,500 

Marshall 10,846 

Poncha 9,049 

Raton 7,893 

Tarryall 12,176 

Trout Creek... 9,346 

Tennessee 1 0,229 

Veta 9,339 



OREGON 



Peak Elevation 

Crater 7,425 

Diamond Peak. 8,807 
Granite Mt 8,990 



Peak Elevation 

Mt.Hood 11,225 

Mt. Pitt 9,760 

Mt. Scott 9,122 



Peak Elevation 

Mt. Timber. .. . 7,519 
Sugar-loaf Mt.. 8,415 
Union Peak. . . 7,881 



WASHINGTON 



Peak 


Elevation 


Peak Elevation 


Peak Elevation 


Mt. Adams. . 


. 12,470 


Mt. Jefferson .. . 5,657 


Mt. St. Helens. 9,750 


Mt. Baker . . . 


.10,827 


Mt. Olympus... 8,150 


Mt. Tacoma.. .14,444 


Mt. Constance 


. . 7,777 


Mt.Skomegan. 8,400 





IDAHO 



Peak Elevation 

Antelope Peak . 7,282 
Bannock Peak. 8,359 
Cache Peak ...10,451 
CanteRock ... 9,610 
East MaladeMt. 9,332 


Peak 

Grand Teton . 
Meade Peak . 
Mt. Caribou 
Mt. Garfield 


Elevation 

10,050 

.. 13,691 

..10,541 

. 9,854 

. 9,704 


Peak 

Mt. Oxford . . 
Mt. Preuss . . . 
Mt. Sherman . 
Sawtelle Peak 


Elevation 

. 9,386 
. 9,979 
. 9,573 
.10,012 



234 



ON THE HEIGHTS 



Elevations of Mountain Peaks and Passes 



UTAH 



Peak 


Elevation 


Peak 


Elevation 


Peak 


Elevation 


Adams Head . 


.10,360 


Mt. Belknap 


.12,200 


Midget Crest.. 


.11,414 


Anderson Peak 


.10,710 


Mt. Brian . . . 


.11,178 


Monroe Peak. . 


.11,240 


BaldMts... . 


.11,970 


Mt. Dalton . . 


..10,480 


Musinia Peak 


. 10,940 


Blue Mt 


.11,071 


Mt. Delano . . 


.12,240 


N.Logan Peak 10,004 


Bruin Point. . . 


.10,150 


Mt. Ellen 


.11,485 


Pilot Peak . . . 


.10,724 


Burro Peak. . . . 


.12,834 


Mt. Emmons. 


.13,624 


Point Carbon . 


. 1 1 ,400 


Clayton's Peak 


.11,889 


Mt. Harry . . 


.11,300 


Provo Peak. . . 


.11,003 


Cox Peak . . . 


.13,250 


Mt. Hodges . . 


.13,500 


Table Cliff . . . 


.10,070 


Frances Point . 


.10,430 


Mt. Horeb . . 


. 7,831 


Terrell Ridge. 


. 1 1 ,380 


Gilbert Peak.. 


.13,687 


Mt. Marvine. 


. 1 1 ,600 


Tockewanna P 


.13,200 


Heber Mt 


. 9,850 


Mt. Nebo . . . 


.11,881 


Tomasaki Mt. . 


.12,271 


La Motte Peak. 12,892 


Mt. Pennel.. . 


.11,320 


Tooele Peak . . 


.10,396 


Lone Peak . . . 


.11,295 


Mt. Stevenson 


.10,840 


Twin Peak . . . 


.11,563 


Mt. Bangs 


7,950 


Mt. Waas 


12,319 


Wilson's Peak. 


.13,300 



SOME YELLOWSTONE PARK ELEVATIONS 



Elevation 




Elevation 


Elevation 


Amethyst Mt. . 


9,423 


Hell Roaring 




N'th Twin Butte 


Baronettes Peak 10,459 


Mountain . . 


. 8,418 


(Lr. Basin).. 7,976 


Beaver Lake . . . 


7,415 


Herring Lake . 


. 7,530 


Pelican Hill ... 9,580 


Beulah Lake. . . 


7,530 


Lake Lewis . . . 


. 7,720 


Promontory Top 8,706 


Bison Peak .... 


9,038 


Lower Geyser 




Quadrant Mt . . 1 0,1 27 


Bunsen Peak . . . 


8,775 


Basin 


. 7,250 


RedMt 9,777 


Crater Hills .... 


7,820 


Mary Lake. . . 


. 8,336 


Riddle Lake... 8,000 


Dunraven Peak 


9,988 


Mt. Crittenden 


10,190 


Shoshone Gey- 


Elephant's Back 8,884 


Mt. Doane . . . 


.10.713 


ser Basin .... 7,837 


Flat Mountain . 


9,200 


Mt. Evarts . . . 


. 7,900 


Shoshone Lake . 7,740 


Gardner Rivei 




Mt. Holmes... 


.10,528 


Smoothface Mt. 10,4 17 




6,500 


Mt. Langford . 


.10,779 


Soda Hill 9,518 


Garnet Hill. . . . 


7,177 


Mt. Norris.. . . 


.10,019 


S'th Twin Butte 7,977 


Gibbon Geyser. 


7,527 


Mt. Sheridan . 


.10,385 


Specimen Ridge 8,806 


Gibbon Lake . . 
Grizzly Mt 


7,838 
9,982 


Mt. Stevenson . 


. 10,420 


Turret Mt 11,142 
Upper Geyser 


Haystack Mt. . . 


7,689 


Mt. Washburne 


■ 10,346 


Basin 7,400 


Heart Lake . . . 


7,475 


Mud Geysers . 


. 7,725 


Yel' stone Lake 7,741 



2 35 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Elevations of Mountain Peaks and Passes 

WYOMING 



Peak Elevation 

Fremont's Peak 13,790 
Mt. Hooker... 12,900 
Wind River Pk. 13,499 
Atlantic Peak . 12,794 
West Atlantic 

Peak 12,634 

Mt. Genie ....12,546 
Mt.Moran ...12,801 
Washakie N'dle 12,000 
Medicine Peak. 12,230 
Mt.Chauvenet 10,030 



Peak Elevation 

Index Peak .... 1 1 ,740 
YountsPeak... 11,700 
Union Peak ... 1 1 ,593 
Wyoming Peak 1 1 ,490 

ElkMt 11,162 

DelhamPeak. . 11,524 

Coffin Mt 11,376 

Chimney Rock. 1 1 ,853 
Grosventure Pk . 1 1 ,570 
Mt. Leidy ....11,177 



Peak Elevation 

Gd. Encampm't 

Mountain. . . 11,003 
Mill Peak. . . .10,506 

Sailor Mt 10,046 

Virginia Peak . 10,444 
Volcanic Comb 10,583 
HobackPeak .10,818 

Mt. Baird 9,990 

Bald Mt 10,029 

Bradley Peak . 9,500 



MONTANA 



Peak Elevation 

Bridger 9,106 

Emigrant 10,969 

Electric 11,155 

Liberty 9,162 



Peak Elevation 

Blackmore 10,196 

Delano 10,200 

Sphinx 10,844 



Pass Elevation 

Deer Lodge . . . 4,529 

Flathead 6,769 

Lewis and Clark 6,323 
Madison 6,91 1 



CALIFORNIA 



Peak 


Elevation 


Peak 


Elevation 


Peak Elevation 


Mt. Adams. .. 


. 8,431 


Hoffman Peak. 


.10,921 


Mt. Shasta ....14.380 


Mt. Anderson. 


. 9,000 


Kaweah Peak. 


.13,752 


Mt.Silliman ...11,188 


Mt. Bidwell . . 


8,551 


Mt.Lyell 


13,090 


Mt. Silver . ...10,934 


Mt. Brewer. . . 


.13,886 


McBride Peak 


.13,441 


Sonora Mt 11 ,429 


Castle Peak . . 


.12,500 


Meadow Mt. . 


.11,734 


Stevens Mt..... 10,011 


Clark Peak . . . 


. 1 1 ,006 


Mt. Merced . . 


11,722 


Sunday Peak .11 ,089 


Mt. Corcoran . 


.14,093 


Olancho Peak. 


.12,250 


Sweetwater Mt.1 1,778 


Mt. Dana .... 


.12,992 


Pyramid Mt. . 


10,020 


Telescope Mt. . i 0,937 


Dunderberg Pk.12,32C 


Red State Peak 1 


Mt. Washington 10,802 


Echo Peak . . . 


11,100 


San Antonio Pk 


.. 1,080 


Waucoba Peak. 11,286 


Mt. Elephant . 


10,418 


San Bernardino 


Mt. Whitney... 14,502 


Fisherman's Pk 


.14,448 


Mountain . . 


.11,630 


Woods Peak .. 10,552 


Highland Peak 


.10,955 


San Jacinto . . 


.10,805 





ALASKA 



Peak 
Mt. Cook . 
Mt. Crillon 



Elevation 

.13,758 
.15,900 



Peak Elevation 

Mt.St. Elias... 18,024 
Mt. Shishaldin . 8,952 



Peak Elevation 

Mt. Fairw'ther . 15,292 



236 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 

The fascinating charm of an inland voyage which 
does not involve sea sickness, although one is on salt 
water all of the time, is one of the strong allurements 
pertaining to the Alaskan trip. Never out to sea, but 
weaving in and out among islands, through tortuous 
channels, across the "reach" of some inlet — a trip 
whereon you read your book by sunlight at twelve 
o'clock at night, and have the steam turned on in 
your cabin every night, even though the month be 
July! 

Alaska is beginning to be better known as a beau- 
tiful place to visit — provided we are not gold seekers, 
or men with some sort of a proposition. And within 
all our broad domain we have no pleasure journey 
like this. The many who have visited these far 
northern solitudes have the same story to tell — of the 
matchless grandeur of the trip, of the midnight sun, 
of the placid waters, of the aurora borealis, of the 
majestic mountains, of the inland seas, of the mighty 
glaciers, of the huge icebergs plunging thunderously 
into the sea and floating off in lonely glory, of the 
wealth of fish, timber, and minerals, of the biggest 
quartz mill ever constructed, of the queer customs of 
the natives, and of novel and startling incidents that 
may well make the Inland Voyage the object of a 
lifetime. 

Alaska is the largest and most northerly domain 
owned by any country with possessions on the North 

237 




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AN INLAND VOYAGE 



American continent. The exploration of its south- 
eastern coast line by the hardy seamen of England 
and Russia antedates the Declaration of Independ- 
ence many years. Scattered over its vast expanse 
are some of the greatest natural wonders of the world. 
Its glaciers, its mountains, its archipelagoes of islands, 
its mighty rivers, are typical in their grandeur and 
beauty of their birthplace. Among these dwell a 
primitive race whose history is lost in the shadows of 
antiquity. Their oral traditions are as vague as the 
sea mists. They have never wholly relinquished the 
habits and customs of their barbarous ancestors. 

In isolated places they use to-day the same house- 
hold utensils, the same weapons for war and hunting, 
the same methods of catching and preparing fish (the 
main source of their food supply) as were habitual to 
their early progenitors. Their canoes are modeled 
on the same lines and made in the same laborious 
fashion, with the same kind of crude implements used 
long ago, and there is certainly nothing more graceful 
and beautiful as a water vehicle than the Siwash 
canoes of the Southeast Coast. Their basket and 
blanket work is the same now as in the by-gone time. 
Their present silversmiths, working in malleable 
metals, are making reproductions in miniature of the 
carvings on stone and wood, which every leading 
family possesses and cherishes as its sign-manual 
of distinction. These are the passports of the 
Thlinkets' four hundred. 

In addition to these picturesque people and their 
handiwork are Alaska's numerous natural produc- 

239 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

tions. Its gold, and silver, and coal, and iron; its 
magnificent yellow cedar and other wonderful and 
valuable forest growths, and its long list of fur-bearing 
animals, including the fur seal, Russian sable, the 
silver fox, and the sea otter, most valuable of all 
marketable furs. 

The native islanders, according to some authorities, 
called the mainland "Al-ay-ek-sa," which signifies 
"great country," and the word has been corrupted 
into "Alaska." Alexander Badlam, of the old 
California Russia Fur Company, and a high authority 
on Alaska, says the aboriginal word is "Al-ak-shak," 
and that this was the term the early voyagers heard 
applied to the unknown land. This name is found on 
old German, French, and Spanish maps. Captain 
Cook's atlas of his first voyage in 1778 probably gave 
the first Saxon spelling and pronunciation. This 
immense empire, it will be remembered, was sold by 
Russia to the United States October 18, 1867, for 
$7,200,000. The country was discovered by Vitus 
Behring in 1741. The Spaniards went as far north 
as Sitka in 1775, and Captain Cook followed in 1776. 
Alaska has an area of 578,000 square miles, and is 
nearly one-fifth as large as all the other States and 
Territories combined. It is larger than twelve States 
the size of New York. 

The secret of the impulse which led Secretary 
Seward to enter promptly upon a negotiation with 
the Russian minister at Washington for the transfer 
of Alaska to the United States is not generally known, 
but the following facts are authentic: A corporation 

240 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



was formed in San Francisco in 1866 to equip ships, 
and fit them out, for carrying on the ice trade 
between the great glaciers of Alaska and the cities and 
towns on the Pacific Coast. It was a well known fact 
that great glaciers projected from the lateral gorges 
of the valley of the Stikeen River, and that millions 
of tons of ice were easily accessible to steamers, and 
could be loaded on vessels for the markets of the 
Pacific Coast cities at a moderate cost and with an 
enormous profit. 

Soon after this company was organized, and vessels 
equipped for the traffic, Prince Maksutoff, the 
governor of the Russian colony, then having his head- 
quarters at Sitka, made a proposition to the officers of 
the ice company, that they buy out all the interests 
of the Russian-American Company in Alaska. Nego- 
tiations for that purpose were set on foot, and as 
Alexander II, the Czar of Russia, was one of the 
largest stockholders in the Russian-American Com- 
pany, correspondence began looking to the acquisition 
of all that territory, including sovereign rights, by a 
company organized under the laws of California. 
Mr. Seward soon became acquainted with every step 
that had been taken, and, regarding it as a question in 
which the United States was vitally concerned, inde- 
pendent of any interest which any of the citizens, as 
members of a corporation, might have, broached the 
subject at once to the Russian minister at Washing- 
ton, and in a short time a treaty was concluded by 
which Alaska became the property of the United 
States. 

241 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

The consideration was paid by the United States, 
and on October 18, 1867, Prince Maksutoff, on 
behalf of Russia, and Gen. Lovell H. Rosseau, 
on the part of the United States, made the formal 
transfer. Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, with about two hundred 
and fifty troops, took possession and raised the 
American flag. Five United States vessels in Sitka 
Bay fired a salute when the Russian colors were 
lowered from the flagstaff on Castle Hill and the 
American flag took its place. From that, date to this 
Alaska has belonged to the United States. It 
is pointed out elsewhere in this volume that, as in 
the case of the Louisiana Purchase, we bought 
much better than we knew when we gave Russia 
her price for this "unapproachable wilderness." The 
canned-salmon product amounts, annually, to more 
than the money we paid; the gold output to three 
times as much. Alaska has yielded us $300,000,000 
since 1880. 

The best time to visit Alaska is from June to 
September. The latter month is usually lovely, 
and the sea beautifully smooth, but the days begin 
to grow short. The trip occupies from twelve to 
twenty days. 

As the rainfall in Alaska is usually very large, it 
naturally follows that an umbrella is a convenient 
companion. A gossamer for a lady and a mackintosh 
for a gentleman, and heavy shoes, and coarse, warm, 
and comfortable clothing for both should be provided. 
It is cool enough even in July and August for heavy 
wraps during the greater part of the trip. 

242 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



The luxurious Oregon-Washington Limited 
receives you at Kansas City or Omaha, and delivers 
you in supreme comfort at Seattle, the route traversed 
being via Union Pacific, Oregon Short Line, Oregon 
Railroad & Navigation Company, and Oregon & Wash- 
ington Railroad. At Seattle, the Chicago of Puget 
Sound, the Alaskan voyage begins. A wonder- 
fully prosperous city is Seattle, amazingly cosmopoli- 
tan, the outfitting point for all the far-north country, 
and westward to Cape Nome and the Aleutian Chain. 
And it is from here that the steamer Spokane, of 
the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, starts on the 
Alaskan voyage, making the round trip, from Seattle to 
the farthest northerly point reached, in about eleven 
days. This company has a large fleet engaged in the 
Alaska trade and carries passengers at excursion rates, 
but the Spokane carries none but round-trip, first- 
class passengers, and very little freight. This steamer 
is superbly equipped with all modern luxuries and 
conveniences, being provided with electric light, 
elevators, steam steering-gear, cold storage, and all the 
appliances used by the big liners. Her sailing dates 
from Seattle are in June, July, and August each year. 
The special features of service on this boat proved 
so popular that every trip for the season of 1909 was 
sold out six weeks before the sailing date. 

The first call, after leaving Port Townsend 
across the Sound from Seattle, is at Victoria, B. C, 
and the last at Vancouver, B. C, thus affording 
visits to two of the most interesting cities in the 
British Northwest. Other principal points visited 

243 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



are Metlakatla, where Father Duncan has his won- 
derful community of 1,000 civilized Indians; Ketchi- 
kan, where a salmon-run may often be witnessed; 
Killisnoo and the fishing grounds of Lucky Kootz- 
nohoo; Sitka, the old-time Russian settlement; 
Glacier Bay and the world-famous Muir Glacier, 
where last year's passengers were landed and 
"climbed the glacier;'' Funter's Bay Salmon Cannery; 
Skagway, the gateway to the Yukon Gold Fields; 
Taku Glacier, one of the most beautiful in Alaska; 
Davidson and Windom Glaciers, big picturesque ice 
streams; Juneau, the capital city; Treadwell, one of 
the largest gold mines in the world; Wrangell, at the 
mouth of the Stikine River; and old Kasaan, the inter- 
esting deserted Totem-Pole Village. 

From Victoria, for over 1,000 miles, northerly, 
the steamer proceeds, passing through the wonder- 
land of islands, by rugged promontories and passing 
canons that run from mountains to sea. It is said 
that in this Alaskan archipelago there are over 20,000 
islands, ranging in size from a mere speck of volcanic 
rock, or a tuft of trees, ferns, and mosses, to those as 
large as Vancouver or Prince of Wales. 

Here is an empire that, within a few years, will 
hold a largely increased population. These are the 
enchanted islands, all the way from Vancouver to the 
glaciers. They are heavily timbered, and on many 
are rich mines; but, above all, their timbered sides 
and mountainous form go to make up the grand 
scenery which has been the subject of comment and 
glorification by many writers. 

245 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

The crowning glory of this majestic realm is the 
great Muir Glacier, in Glacier Bay. It lies southward 
from Juneau through Lynn Canal whose waters mingle 
with those of Cross Sound, or Icy Strait, and from 
them we turn northwestward into Glacier Bay, an 
indentation which extends about 30 miles in that 
direction, with a breadth of from 8 to 1 2 miles in its 
lower reach, and narrowing to about 3 miles 
at its upper end, where seven enormous glaciers 
descend to its waters. The peninsula, enclosed by 
Glacier Bay, Cross Sound, and the Pacific Ocean, is 
from thirty to forty miles wide, and contains numerous 
lofty mountains, including Mounts Crillon, 15,900 
feet; Fairweather, 15,500 feet; Lituya, 10,000 feet; 
D'Agelet, 9,000 feet; and La Perouse, 11,300 
feet. These form the southern extremity of the 
Mount St. Elias Alps. All these noble summits are 
seen from the steamer's deck while ascending Glacier 
Bay, together with the picturesque White Mountains, 
which line the east, between Glacier Bay and Lynn 
Canal; but Mount St. Elias, itself, is too far north to 
be visible. Vancouver found a wall of ice extend- 
ing across the mouth of the bay in 1794, and it was 
not until 1880 that Glacier Bay occupied a place on 
any printed map. Near the mouth of the bay is a 
group of low islands named after Commander 
Beardslee, of the United States Navy, and composed 
of loose material, evidently glacier debris. Wil- 
loughby Island, near the middle of the bay, is a bare 
rock about two miles long and 1,500 feet high, show- 
ing glacial furrows and polishing from the bottom to 

246 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



the top. The Muir Glacier enters an inlet of the 
same name near the head of the bay, in latitude 58 
degrees 50 minutes north and longitude 136 degrees 
40 minutes west of Greenwich. It was named for 
Prof. John Muir, the Pacific Coast geologist, who, in 
1879, was, with Rev. S. Hall Young of Fort Wrangell, 
the first to explore the glacier. 

A MEMORY PICTURE 

It is the experience of those who have wandered 
over many lands, that in the quiet of home, when one 
has resumed his place once more amidst familiar sur- 
roundings, there remains one particularly delightful 
memory — some one peculiar spot or scene which 
stands brightly out in the winding story of travel, and 
so abides a precious possession forever. And this 
Alaskan voyage has given you one memory you can 
never part with. We remember Puget Sound, one 
of the noblest sheets of water we have, a dream of 
beauty; Victoria, quaint, English — a Devonshire town 
set down next door to feverish Seattle; Georgia Gulf; 
the famous Grenville Channel; a bit of the majesty of 
the Pacific across Dixon's Entrance: the tortuous 
windings of Wrangell Channel; Baranoff Island and 
quaint, Indianesque, drowsy, damp Sitka; Juneau the 
sturdy, one of the first glimpses of American trade and 
traffic; Fort Wrangell, squalid, filthy, dirty, depressed; 
all these and more make a memory picture when we 
say Alaska! But above all and beyond all there 
remains one vision. There always will be one haunt- 
ing picture which lingers, one stray patch of color 

247 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

which still glows long after the journey is accom- 
plished, and one is back to every-day sights and 
scenes and faces. 

And this vision is of a bay, rimmed in by moun- 
tain heights, void of vegetation, impressive in its dreari- 
ness, lonely as death. These two sides of somber 
color are closed in the immediate foreground by a 
drop curtain of overpowering majesty. A solid wall 
of ice over a mile across and 2 50 feet high uplifts 
itself from the water; there are pinnacles and domes, 
and fairy castles and minarets with delicate tracery, 
the ice revealing ever-shifting, varying tints, from the 
loveliest aqua marine to the purest white. On 
the extreme verge of either wing is a fringe of moraine 
ice, on the right a muddy subterranean river bursts 
forth near the base of the glacier; overhead a sullen 
sky. This makes a picture at once beautiful and awe- 
some. The ice in the middle of the glacier, at its 
base, and in many places across its entire frontage, is 
of deep, translucent blue at the water line, and above 
it for perhaps two hundred feet; above that chalky 
white, cream color, delicate shades of gray, patches 
of brown debris and solemn black stone boulders 
mingle in magnificent confusion. Words can not de- 
scribe the wonderful eddying shades of light and 
color which play across the marble face of this frozen 
splendor. But this "frozen Niagara," as it has been 
called, has its fearful and appalling side. It is not a 
sleeping, dreaming picture of prismatic color, it is 
alive, moving, terrible in strength and majesty, awful 
in heart-shaking discharges of thunderous artillery. 

248 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



We are anchored fully a mile from this tempestu- 
ous loveliness, and yet it seems but a few yards, so 
colossal are the majestic proportions of the great ice 
wall. Suddenly, sharp and clear, comes a report like 
a rifle shot, and then another; the smaller supports 
around a noble dome of steel blue ice are flying into 
the water, and next, slowly toppling, the huge mass 
crashes into the bay — and an iceberg is born! There 
is a tremendous boom, louder than heavy field-guns, 
a vast volume of water thrown high in air, and a 
great crested wave rushes shoreward, roaring along 
the beach and rocking the sturdy vessel like a cradle. 
The iceberg gets her bearings, swings into the cur- 
rent and sails majestically down past the desolate 
shores, and so out to sea on the bosom of the broad 
Pacific. Again and again this is repeated, the 
reverberations varying in volume from the crack of 
some baby berg of fifty tons to the columbiad roar of 
a thousand tonner. On the deck at midnight, which 
is a pale uncertain twilight, listening to those weird, 
mysterious voices which proclaim the mighty and 
irresistible force of Nature, is an experience never 
to be forgotten. And all that night of summer light 
is heard the solemn booming of those frozen guns. 

RECENT EXPLORATION 

For more than ten years past, vigorous exploration 
has been going on in the northern parts of Alaska by 
the National Geographic Society with splendid results. 
During the summer of 1909, the Society's expedition 
made a thorough study of the glaciers in and adjacent 

249 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

to Yakutat Bay, which is far north from Sitka. The 
report of this expedition is of absorbing charm to 
every one interested in the grandeurs of our country, 
and it appears by this report that we have the largest 
glaciers in the world outside the Arctic circles. The 
country, visited and studied, was the mountainous 
region of the Pacific Coast slope of the Saint Elias 
and Chugach ranges. These mountains rise to heights 
of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, with peaks reaching 15,000 
to 18,000 feet, and with snow fields covering the 
whole upland above 2,000 to 3,000 feet, except 
where the slopes are too steep. The upland is bare, 
cold, and cheerless; the lowland, quite in contrast, 
may be covered with spruce and hemlock forest or 
with luxuriant grass and flowers. 

The region has a mild temperature, although in 
the latitude of Hudson Strait the lofty mountains, 
rising from the coast in the path of the prevailing 
westerly winds, cause heavy precipitation — 81 to 190 
inches annually — a large percentage of which falls on 
the mountains in the form of snow. Great excess 
of snow accumulation over melting has resulted in the 
formation of large valley glaciers, which descend from 
all the mountains, uniting to form the piedmont Mal- 
aspina and Behring glaciers and many intermediate 
piedmont bulbs. 

THE LARGEST GLACIERS OUTSIDE THE POLAR REGIONS 

Regarding the size of these glaciers the report 
published in the National Geographic Magazine for 
January, 1910, says: 

250 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



'The dimensions of the ice masses present is 
commensurate with the heavy snowfall and the north- 
ern latitude, many of the valley glaciers being of 
exceptional size. The Hubbard glacier (named after 
Gardiner Greene Hubbard, first president of the 
National Geographic Society, by Prof. Israel C. Rus- 
sell, who discovered the glacier in 1890 while leading 
the National Geographic Society Expedition to Alaska 
of that year) in Yakutat Bay, for example, has a total 
known length of 28 miles, only the lower portion 
being explored. It reaches the sea and discharges 
icebergs from a tidal cliff nearly 5 miles long and 
2 50 to 300 feet high. Upon its lower surface three 
of the largest and best-known Swiss glaciers — the 
Aletsch, Rhone, and Mer de Glace — might be 
superposed without covering the whole width of 
the glacier. 

'The front of this glacier is so high that a man's 
figure looks puny against it, and, indeed, a lofty 
modern office building, such as the Masonic Temple, 
in Chicago, might stand beside it and the roof would 
barely overtop the ice cliff, which also extends deep 
beneath the waters of the fiord. The Times Building, 
in New York City, approximately equal in height to 
the Hubbard or Turner glacier front, is dwarfed 
by the giant mountains whose 8,000-foot peaks 
tower in the background. 

'The whole city of Washington, laid out upon the 
surface of Columbia glacier, gives a specific conception 
of the magnitude of these ice masses. One who has 
walked from the Capitol to the White House, or 

251 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

from the Navy Yard to the Zoological Park, can 
appreciate this distance across Columbia glacier. 

'The Malaspina glacier, however, fed by Agassiz, 
Seward, Marvine, and other valley glaciers which 
rival or exceed the Hubbard and Columbia in size, is 
so large that the whole State of Rhode Island could 
be laid out upon its 1,500 square miles of surface, or 
all of eastern Massachusetts. From a glance at the 
map it may be seen that if Boston were located in the 
eastern part of the Malaspina glacier the cities of 
Worcester and Gardner, in central Massachusetts, 
would be near the west edge. 

"It was with ice masses, varying in magnitude from 
that of Malaspina, Hubbard, and Columbia glaciers 
to the almost innumerable minor ice tongues, that the 
investigations of the National Geographic Society's 
Alaskan expedition of 1909 dealt.'' 

The Alaskan Coast region is not only the seat of 
the largest glaciers on the continent, and in fact 
of some of the largest in the world, outside of the 
Arctic and Antarctic regions, but also of some of 
the most interesting and least known. 

The glaciers of the Alaskan coast are especially 
interesting to the student of continental glaciation, 
because here large masses of ice descend into a cool, 
damp, temperate climate, much as was the case at 
the base of the Alps and other mountains during the 
Glacial period. The wasting margins of these gla- 
ciers furnish much information of value in the study 
and interpretation of the phenomena of continental 
glaciation in Europe and America. 

252 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



Where the great Copper River breaks through the 
lofty Chugach Mountains are displayed some of the 
most striking relationships between glaciers and 
human life. This water route to interior Alaska has 
always been blocked by lateral glaciers entering the 
Copper River Valley and causing ice barriers and 
rapids in the stream course. Few of the Russians 
succeeded in getting up the Copper, and difficulties 
here led to the utilization of the glacier highway at 
Valdez by most of the prospectors. 

Miles and Baird glaciers, emerging on opposite 
sides of the valley, expand in piedmont bulbs. The 
Copper River writhes between them, forced first 
against one mountain wall, then the other. Above 
the glacier dams are lake-like stretches of the river. 
Childs glacier thus dams the Copper, causing a lake 
into which the Miles glacier discharges icebergs from a 
cliff three miles long. There are similar slack waters 
above Miles and Baird glaciers. Opposite the glacier 
ends the river is constricted into foaming rapids. 

THE GREATEST SCENIC RAILWAY IN THE WORLD 

"Under these difficult conditions a railway is being 
built. Its difficulties include three great bridges 
across the shifting glacial torrent of Copper River. 
They include expensive rock cuts, curves, etc., at 
Abercrombie Rapids, where Miles glacier and the 
river occupy the whole valley, forcing the railway 
to the mountain side. They include the laying of 
five miles of track on the ice of Baird glacier, 
whose advance would destroy the line and whose 

2 53 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

melting will keep it continually under repairs. 

'The project is daring, unique, but possible. Care- 
ful study has determined the necessities. Large 
capital has enabled wise work. Able engineers, 
including Messrs. E. C. Hawkins, M. J. Heney, and 
Alfred Williams, who built the White Pass and 
Yukon Railway, are coping with the problems one by 
one. Men have never before built railways close to, 
between, and on great glaciers. But that it can be 
done is being proved in Alaska. The rich copper 
deposits north of the Chugach Range, near Mount 
Wrangell, and perhaps the valuable coal fields of the 
Controller Bay region, will soon be connected by 
rail with the growing port of Cordova, on eastern 
Prince William Sound. 

"Moreover, this will be the greatest scenic route in 
the world. Nowhere else can one step from an 
ocean steamship to a railway car, and ride through 
foothills, then over a great glacial delta to and between 
giant ice tongues two and eleven miles, respectively, 
in width, around the stagnant, moraine-veneered bulb 
of the northern part of the Miles glacier, past the 
beautiful Abercrombie Rapids, and over five miles of 
the stagnant Baird glacier. Here ice underlies the 
ties and rails, and a moraine with alders and cotton- 
woods covers the icy slope on one side, while the 
other is washed by the Copper River." 

THE HARRIMAN EXPEDITION 

When E. H. Harriman was chairman of the Execu- 
tive Committee of the Union Pacific Railroad he 

2 54 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



headed a scientific expedition to Alaska. Although 
keenly alive to the value of expert exploration — 
helps alike to science and commerce — the trip was 
primarily made to recuperate Mr. Harriman's 
impaired health, and with characteristic generosity 
he invited a large party of the most distinguished 
scientists in the country to accompany him. The 
expedition left New York by special train on 
May 24, 1899, leaving Seattle by specially chartered 
steamer May 31st, and returning to the point of 
departure August 1st. 

No expedition has achieved more important 
results, nor been of greater moment in the annals of 
scientific investigation than that made by this party. 

The scientists of the expedition contented them- 
selves with studying the coast of Alaska, so that the 
interior portions of this great territory were not 
visited. The entire journey after leaving Seattle 
covered 9,000 miles. 

The expedition was notable in many ways and of 
great importance on account of the discovery of many 
facts relative to the geographical situation of Alaska 
hitherto unknown. The journey after leaving Seattle 
was by the inside channel. Stops were made at Vic- 
toria, Wrangell, Juneau, and Skagway was reached 
on June 6th. 

The party then proceeded over White Pass to the 
waters of the Yukon, and returned to Skagway. 
Thence they sailed for Glacier Bay. Here the glaciers 
were studied and collections were made. Sitka was 
visited for three days, and from here the party went 

2 55 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

to Yakutat, and proceeded to the extreme head of the 
bay to examine and map glaciers. Several days 
were devoted to the visit of Prince William Sound, 
and then the party sailed to Cooks Inlet. Here 
several were left on the Alaska Peninsula at Kukak 
Bay, North of Kadiak Island, to make collections. 
Kadiak and Wood Islands were thoroughly explored, 
and the party celebrated the Fourth of July in the Harbor 
of Kadiak. From here the journey was continued 
westward via Shuniagin Islands, where the naturalists 
were left until the return of the ship, and the 
remainder of the party continued via Unimak Pass 
to Behring Sea, to Unalaska, to Pribilof Islands, via 
Bogoslof Volcano, and thence to Plover Bay in 
Siberia. From here all returned to Port Clarence on 
American soil, and thence to St. Lawrence Island, on 
the way steaming around King Island, and later 
visited Hall and St. Matthew Islands, after which the 
return was commenced to Seattle. 

Large collections of vertebrate and invertebrate 
zoological specimens were secured, and in botany 
and ethnology many birds and mammals hitherto 
rare were found in considerable numbers. 

Several thousand photographs were taken on this 
expedition. New waters were entered and explored, 
and many new glaciers were discovered and mapped. 
The members of the expedition were so intent 
on getting scientific knowledge that few attempts 
were made to secure fish of which there are many 
varieties, or engage in any extensive hunting expe- 
ditions, 

256 



AN INLAND VOYAGE 



Mr. Harriman distinguished himself by killing a 
she-bear on Kodiak Island, and Miss Mary Harriman 
killed a deer on Bioca Island. 




Iceberg in Taku Inlet, Alaska 



3/ 




Yosemite Falls in Yosemite Valley, California 



YOSEMITE, THE ENCHANTED 

VALLEY 

The tonal quality, the symphonic coloring, the 
delicate blending of tints in this great Nature poem, 
are of an infinite — 

That will do, young man ! You mean well, but 
you can not describe Yosemite by piling ever so 
many gorgeous words together in striving to build a 
small mountain of rhapsody. Many have attempted 
it, and none have succeeded; for although you may 
have caught glimpses of this vision, you can not 
portray it in words. Frederick Church or Bierstadt 
could paint it for you, and that would be the only 
description worth having. The army of scribblers, 
when they reach the gateway of this Enchanted 
Valley, should in reverence cast aside their pencils, 
face the picture in silence, and try to remember it. 

To the student, a large part of the charm of the 
valley and the adjacent mountains is the geologic 
story which they tell. ' Nowhere," John Muir says, 
' will you see the majestic operations of Nature 
more clearly revealed beside the frailest, most gentle 
and peaceful things. . . . During the last glacial 
period, just passed, the former features of the range 
were rubbed off as a chalk sketch from a black- 
board, and a new beginning was made. Hence the 
wonderful clearness and freshness of the rocky 
pages. But to get all this into words is a hopeless 
task. The leanest sketch of each feature would 
need a whole chapter.' 

259 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Yosemite lies in the heart of the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains, about 150 miles from San Francisco as 
the crow flies, a little south of east in direction. 
Its elevation about the center of the valley is 4,000 
feet above sea level. In form it is somewhat 
irregular, and its trend is northeast and southwest. 
It is closed at the upper or eastern end, and partially 
open at the other, forming thus a pocket. Its length 
is about 7 miles, and its width from one-half to I4 
miles. The valley has been re-ceded by the State 
of California to the United States, and will hereafter 
be taken care of by the National Government as one 
of its system of National parks. The original grant 
was 15 miles in length, and in width "one mile back 
from the main edge of the precipice on each side of 
the valley," but the Park in its entirety covers a 
domain 36 by 48 miles. The re-cession of this ter- 
ritory now places it on a par with the Yellowstone 
National Park in all matters of management and 
improvement, and the fostering care and generosity 
of the Government will doubtless greatly increase 
the facilities for seeing and enjoying this beautiful 
and unrivaled region. 

This new National Park in the heart of the Sierras 
in central eastern California is now easy of access — 
none of the American wonderlands more so. From 
north and south the Southern Pacific joins the Yosem- 
ite Valley Railroad at Merced: and the latter, with 
a journey 80 miles up the beautiful Merced River, 
takes the traveler to the Park line — El Portal. A 
stage ride of 14 miles completes the trip to the heart 

260 



YOSEMITE, THE ENCHANTED VALLEY 

of the valley. Both at El Portal and in the valley 
are such ties to civilization the year round as steam- 
heated, electric-lighted hotels with telephone, 
telegraph, and express office, and there are comfort- 
able tent villages in summer for those who would be 
out of doors. 

The floor of the valley is nearly level, the Mer- 
ced River, which flows through it, falling about 63 
feet in its course. More than 3,000 acres are 
meadow and pasture, and trees and groves make of 
it a natural park. The walls which shut it in are 
nearly perpendicular, and they are remarkable at 
once for their great height, their vertical character, 
and the little talus or debris at their feet. This is 
part of the charm of this great valley. Its floor is not 
a chaos of fallen rocks. Green grove, emerald 
meadow, flowery pasture, crystal river, crowd up 
to the solid white feet of lofty precipices, and one 
looks up at an angle of 90 degrees to mountain 
summits 3,000 and 5,000 feet above him in the 
zenith. 

It has been claimed for Dr. Bunnell, who was at 
the time a member of the Mariposa Battalion and 
engaged in chasing hostile Indians, that he was the 
first white man (in the winter of 1850) who entered 
the valley. J. M. Hutchings of Yosemite also 
claimed first honors as a visiting tourist, he and 
three companions making the first pleasure trip 
through the valley in 1855, and in his charming 
sketch, the ' Heart of the Sierras," gives an inter- 
esting account of the valley. That part relating to 

261 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

the origin and meaning of the word Yo Semite, the 
correct method of spelling, and t«he legend pertaining 
to the place, will be found of special value. Mr. 
Hutchings says of the musical name Yo Semite, that 
its meaning is, according to the best authorities, " a 
large or full-grown grizzly bear," and is pronounced 
Yo Sem-i-tee. The old name was Ah-wah-nee, and 
the tribe which inhabited it — the remote ancestors 
of Ten-ie-ya — were Ah-wah-nee-chees, the origin or 
significance of which is still veiled in mystery. 

From an intelligent Indian, whose life the writer 
was once instrumental in saving, and from whom 
many interesting facts concerning his race have been 
obtained, he received the following: 

LEGENDARY TRADITION CONCERNING "YO SEMITE" 

"A band of the Ah-wah-nee-chees, then a tribe 
numbering over 1,000, was encamped among the 
oaks near the foot of Indian Canon, when, early one 
morning, an athletic chief determined upon going to 
Mirror Lake (called by them 'Ke-ko-too-yem,' or 
'Sleeping Water,' and 'Ah-wi-yah') for the purpose 
of spearing a number of its delicious trout. On 
threading his way among the boulders that strewed 
the ground, and when passing one of the largest, he 
was suddenly met by an enormous grizzly bear. The 
abruptness of this unexpected meeting must have 
been interpreted by the grizzly as an unjustifiable 
intrusion upon his ursine privileges and domain, as 
he immediately declared it a casus belli, by an instan- 
taneous and ferocious attack upon the Indian. Un- 

262 



YOSEMITE, THE ENCHANTED VALLEY 

prepared as the young chief was for such an encoun- 
ter, he resolved upon standing his ground, and doing 
his best, as nobly as he could, so that the children 
of Ah-wah-nee might see that the valorous blood of 
their ancestors was still flowing in the veins of their 
descendants. The dead limb of a tree lying near, 
provided him with a weapon of defense, and with it 
he dealt out heavy and lusty blows upon the head of 
his antagonist ; and, although badly lacerated and 
torn by the teeth and claws of the infuriated brute, 
the Indian courageously held to the uneven contest, 
until the eyes of bruin began to glaze in the cold 
glare of death, and Victory had perched upon the 
banners' of the chief. The astonished Indians, in 
admiring acknowledgment of the unexampled prow- 
ess of the dauntless Ah-wah-nee~chee, thenceforth 
called him 'Yo Semite' in honor of his successful 
and great achievement. This well-won cognomen 
was eventually transmitted to his children, and finally 
to the whole tribe; so that the 'Yo Semites' were 
known, and feared, by all the Indians around their 
wildly defensive habitations. 

'It is apparent, from Dr. Bunnell's statement, that 
the signification of 'Yo Semite' was not generally 
known to the battalion, nor was there any uniformity 
in its general pronunciation, even among the Indians 
themselves ; some calling it Oo-soom-i-tee, others 
Oo-hum-i-tee, Yo-hum-i-tee, Yo-hem-i-tee, and still 
others, Yo-ham-i-tee, while Bullack, the oldest of 
the Yo Semites now living, calls it Ah Hum-a-tee — 
all, however, having the same meaning. 

263 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

"In the summer of 1855 Thomas Ayres, Alex- 
ander Stair, Walter Millard and the writer made the 
first tourist trip to Yo Semite ever attempted. We 
engaged two Yo Semite Indians as guides. Toward 
night of the first day out we enquired of the prin- 
cipal guide, Kossum, how far it might possibly be 
to Yo Semite — for then we knew it by no other 
name. He looked at us earnestly, and replied, 'No 
Yo Semite! Yohamite; sabe, Y o-ham-i-teeV In this way 
we were corrected not less than thirty-five or forty 
times. After returning to San Francisco, having 
arranged for the publication of a large lithograph of 
the Yo Semite Falls, before attaching the name to it, 
I wrote to John Hunt, who was keeping a store 
on the Fresno River, and from whom we had ob- 
tained our Indian guides, requesting him to go to the 
most intelligent among them, and ascertain the exact 
way of pronouncing the name given to the valley. 
His answer was, 'The correct pronunciation is Yo- 
ham-i-tee or Yo Hem-i-te.' This, then, was the name 
placed on the lithograph. 

"Before fully closing these inquiries, it may not be 
inappropriate to consider why preference is given 
here to the construction of the word Yo Semite with a 
capital '5' on its second syllable. It is this: Dr. 
Bunnell, to whom the world is indebted for the 
choice and adoption of this euphonious name, so 
gave it to the writer, some thirty years ago, and 
before the present slovenly way of spelling it came 
into practice. It is true, Dr. Bunnell, in his valuable 
work, 'The Discovery of the Yo Semite,' has fallen 

264 



YOSEMITE, THE ENCHANTED VALLEY 

into that habit; but, when asked his reason for mak- 
ing the change, replied, 'I allowed the printer to 
follow his own way of spelling it. Yours, however, 
is the correct one, and I must give you credit for 
keeping up its pure orthography, that being the con- 
struction given to it, and agreed upon, at our first 
camp-fire in Yo Semite, in 1851.' The Act of Con- 
gress making the donation of the valley to the State 
so gives it. 

One of the finest views of Yosemite Valley is 
from Inspiration Point, on the right as we enter from 
the west. It is not equaled by any other approach 
and is only surpassed by the view a little farther on, 
from what is called Artist s Point. From here most 
of the pictures of the Yosemite are painted and one 
is disposed to admit that the artistic feeling is right. 
But Inspiration Point is notable, if the name does 
conjure up rhetorical speeches and outbursts of 
emotion. 

IN THE VALLEY 

Here on the right, or south wall, is Bridal Veil 
Falls. Around the shoulder, behind which Bridal 
Veil Creek makes its way to the brink, are Cathedral 
Rocks. They get their name from their resemblance 
to the Duomo at Florence, and reach an elevation of 
2,660 feet above the valley floor, one spire rising 
sheer and solitary for 700 feet. 

Nearly opposite is El Capitan. It rises 3,300 
feet with an apparently vertical front and has two 
faces almost at right angles to each other. 

265 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

The Three Brothers are a fraternal group a little 
beyond El Capitan, and their resemblance depends 
upon the point of view. They are sometimes called 
the Three Graces. To the Indians their attitude is 
said to have suggested the heads of frogs sitting up 
ready to leap. The highest of the three is 3,5 30 
feet, and is known from other points as Eagle Peak. 
Its summit is reached by one of the trails from the 
valley, and the view is certainly worth hours of hard 
climbing. 

Sentinel Rock faces Three Brothers from the 
south wall, and is a splintered granite tower or 
spire, slender, and for about 1,500 feet below its 
apex nearly perpendicular. The height is 3,059 feet 
above the river at its base. 

Back of this natural and majestic monument 
stands Sentinel Dome, whose storm-worn top 
reaches a height of 4,142 feet. We walk over 
its conoidal, or onion-like, layers when we scale 
the rim of the valley. 

The social center of Yosemite, the hotel, the little 
post-office, a few shops and offices, are gathered near 
the bridge across the Merced ; opposite these is the 
great Yosemite Waterfall. 

Across from here, the south wall thrusts out a 
massive shoulder, which is well named Glacier 
Point. At no other point is the wall so bare and 
sheer, and you look up, almost from its solid foot, 
3,234 feet. 

On the other side stands Yosemite Point, flanked 
on the east by Indian Canon, so called because^by 

266 



YOSEMITE, THE ENCHANTED VALLEY 

means of it the Indians of early days used to enter 
or leave the valley. 

The Royal Arches come next; they are in the vast 
vertical wall whose highest summit is North Dome. 

Over against it, but looking down the valley, 
stands the highest rock of all the region, the great 
South Dome, or Half Dome, as it is often called. It 
is 8,927 feet above sea level, or nearly 5,000 feet 
above the valley. 

Passing through Tenaya Canon we come to 
Mirror Lake. It is but a pond — a widening or 
expansion of Tenaya Creek — and the dust is sifted 
over it and wind-blown about its edges. But when 
the slow sun creeps over the great flank of the South 
Dome — the visit should always be made before sun- 
rise — everything in this little mirror is wonderfully 
reduplicated. 

UP THE TRAILS 

Visitors to this wonderful park should plan for 
time to see it from every point and to see all 
the places of interest. You will do well to call the 
Saddle Train and take a trail to the rim of the valley. 
Especially will you need to see Vernal and Nevada 
Falls. 

Another day may well be spent on the trail to 
Yosemite Falls and Eagle Rock. 

If equal to it, go on to the top of El Capitan. It 
is something to see the "topside" of the great "Cap- 
tain," and from here the lower section of the Park is 
well seen. 

267 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Visit Glacier Point; the trail is a wonderful zig- 
zag, a triumph of engineering. 

Glacier Point is, perhaps, the most popular objec- 
tive point in the whole region, It is so by reason of 
its accessibility, its commanding position, its great 
vertical height and the unspeakable sublimity of 
the view from its projecting rocks. These rocks, 
which mark the point, are but a few yards from 
the hotel. It is exactly 3,234 feet from the top 
of the jutting and insecure-looking rock, upon which 
"nervy" people stand to be photographed, down to 
the floor of the valley, and a pebble dropped from 
this point will touch nothing until it strikes the talus 
3,000 feet straight down. 




The Cathedral Spires, 
Yosemite Valley, California 



268 



THE BIG TREES 

It is a common error to suppose that the grove of 
Big Trees near Yosemite is the one particular stand 
of the Sequoia Gigantea in California. The fact is they 
are found in a continuous belt over 260 miles long 
from Placer County to Kern County, an extreme of 
latitude from 36 degrees to 38 degrees 15 minutes, 
and growing always in an altitude of from 4,000 to 
7,000 feet above sea level — the general prerequisites 
for their health and growth being a dry, clear atmos- 
phere, plenty of open sunny space, and no under- 
brush. The Gigantea has its habitat only in the Sierra 
Nevadas, while its near relative, the Sequoia Semper- 
virens, the redwood of commerce, grows along the 
Coast Range, is not very long-lived, nor does it attain 
to the size of the Gigantea. John L. Corvan says these 
limitations appear to be purely accidental — due, 
perhaps, to the fortuitous escape of seeds from 
destruction when those of all other trees of their kind 
in other parts of the world were killed in the Age of 
Ice. In any event, the seeds of the Big Trees germi- 
nate readily in any temperate climate, irrespective of 
altitude; and thousands of Sequoias, planted since 
1853, are now growing in the Eastern States, England, 
and many other countries. A thousand years or 
more hence, California's monopoly of Big Trees will 
be broken. 

John Muir has pronounced the Big Trees of Cali- 
fornia Nature's foremost masterpieces, the greatest 

269 




The Big Tree "Wawona" with Stage Road cut through its Base 
— Mariposa Big Tree Grove, California 



THE BIG TREES 



of living things. One does not appreciate their 
greatness until he has walked around them, measured 
their girth, lain down on the ground, and allowed 
the eye to travel slowly and comprehendingly up the 
imperceptibly tapering trunks. Then he is ready to 
take off his hat to these green but venerable relics of 
the youth of the world. Prof. David Starr Jordan 
believes that some of them are 8,000 years old. 
'They antedate the oldest civilization of which the 
archaeologist finds any trace. They were forest 
giants before Moses, or Confucius, or Buddha, or any 
other maker of laws or of religion, whose name his- 
tory records, was born. They were 'old' before 
Christ walked the earth; and reared their tall crowns 
in majesty toward the skies centuries before Troy 
fell, or the pyramids were builded, or the foundations 
of Babel were laid. Who can say how many more 
ephemeral civilizations, religions, and social systems 
they will survive? Barring accident and catastrophe, 
they appear to be immortal. There is no evidence 
that they ever die of disease, decay, or old age. 
Some of them are dead at the top — but they were 
blasted by lightning, and the trunks are still as sound 
as ever. Many have been tunneled by fire, but even 
this appears not to have affected their vitality. Re- 
peated forest fires may burn them to the ground, and 
a succession of thunderbolts may permanently blast 
or hopelessly shatter them; or they may be under- 
mined by floods or blown down by terrific storms. 
But death appears to be as unnatural for them as it 
is inevitable to all things else that have life." 

271 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Twenty-six miles from the Yosemite Valley, or 
39 miles from Raymond, on the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, is Wawona, headquarters for a visit 
to the Big Trees. Situated in the heart of the 
Sierras, on the South Fork of the Merced River, at 
an altitude of 4,000 feet, its spring, summer and 
autumn climate is ideal, and the scenic beauty of its 
surroundings has few parallels. 

There are five principal groves of this Big Tree 
district, and several minor groves in close proximity. 
These groves are the Calaveras, California, Giant, 
Grant, and Mariposa — the last named being 8 miles 
from Wawona. This Mariposa grove was discovered 
in 1857, by Galen Clark, who died at Oakland, Cali- 
fornia, March 24, 1910, aged 96 years. He was, for 
twenty years, the State Guardian of Yosemite Valley, 
and the intimate friend of Professor Le Conte, 
John Muir, and John Burroughs. It consists of two 
divisions, known as the Upper and Lower groves, 
about a mile apart, the former containing 360 and the 
latter 246 large Sequoias, and many of smaller size, 
growing among cedars, sugar pines, and yellow pines 
that exceed in height and girth any trees to be found 
in America, east of the Sierras. 

The greatest forest in the world is the Giant Forest 
included in the Sequoia National Park. It contains 
more than 3,000 trees more than 300 feet high, with 
girth exceeding fifty feet, and numberless others of the 
same species but of smaller size. Other famous groves 
are the Calaveras, South Park, Tuolumne, Fresno, 
General Grant National Park, and Tule River groves, 

272 



THE BIG TREES 



The Calaveras Grove was discovered in 1853, 
and was first described in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 
published in London. As the Big Trees of the 
Sierras were supposed to belong to a new genus of 
conifers, a professor in the University of London 
made haste to christen this genus ' Wellingtonia," 
species Gigantea. Soon afterwards it was proven 
that the giant trees of the mountains belonged to the 
same genus as those of the Coast Range, already 
named the Sequoia Sempervirens, and this generic 
name finally prevailed. It is worth noting that this 
nomenclature immortalizes a Cherokee Indian of 
mixed blood, named Sequoyah, also called by the 
English name John Guess, who devised an alphabet 
for his people, and first reduced their language to 
printed form. He was a native of Alabama, but was 
exiled to New Mexico, where he died in 1843. His 
achievement marks him as one of the greatest of 
American Indians, so that it is not inappropriate that 
his name is perpetuated in that of the greatest of 
American trees. 

On account of its accessibility, the Mariposa 
Grove is the one most frequently visited. For forty 
years it has attracted tree lovers and sight-seers. 
Most of the very large trees in the grove have been 
given the names of States, cities, prominent men, 
or more or less fanciful appellations, such as the 
"Four Guardsmen," the "Pillar of the Temple," and 
"Felice" (the last 334 feet high.) 

The real king of the forest is the tree in the 
Mariposa Grove known as the "Grizzly Giant." 

273 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

This is 104 feet in circumference at the ground and 
285 feet high. Five feet above the ground it is 90 feet 
in circumference. It takes twenty-two men with out- 
stretched arms, and finger tips barely touching, to 
encircle it. It is claimed that six men can ride around 
this tree on horseback, keeping equally distant from 
each other, and that not one can see another. The 
first limbs are 100 feet from the ground. One of these 
is more than 20 feet in circumference, or nearly 7 feet 
through — large enough itself to be counted a great tree 
anywhere but in California. Many other limbs are 
from 2 to 5 feet in diameter, so that it has been said that 
if the limbs were all cut from the Grizzly Giant and 
placed upright in the ground, they would make a very 
respectable grove of really big trees" themselves. 
Its age has been variously estimated at from 5,000 
to 8,000 years; and John Muir once said that this is 
the only Sequoia he ever saw that appeared to have 
reached the zenith of its growth. Considering its 
height, girth, age, and awe-inspiring appearance, this 
venerable tree may doubtless be pronounced the 
grandest tree in the world. There are others that are 
higher, and there are many that are larger in circum- 
ference ; but perhaps there are none that embrace so 
many elements of tree-greatness. 

The "Fallen Monarch" is a great tree in the lower 
grove that has been lying upon the ground for 
generations, but is still untouched by decay. A 
roadway has been built that makes it possible to 
drive a four-horse stage coach up on the trunk, trav- 
ersing its entire length to the wide-spreading roots; 

274 



THE BIG TREES 



and a score or more of mounted cavalrymen have 
been posed for their photographs upon the fallen 
bole at one time. A similar fallen tree is seen in 
the Upper Grove, with a flight of thirteen steps 
leading from the ground to its upper surface. Two 
great trees known as the "California" and the "Wa- 
wona," have roadways cut through them, 10 feet 
square, through which the stages are driven. This 
serves well to give visitors to the grove an adequate 
idea of the tremendous size of the trees. 

Nearly all the Big Trees in the Mariposa Grove 
bear black scars of the forest fires of past years. The 
'Telescope Tree' has been burned to a mere shell, 
so that one can stand in the hollow trunk and look 
upward to daylight among the branches, 200 feet 
from the ground. Two young cavalrymen, now 
stationed in the Grove to prevent vandalism, have 
built for themselves a camp that is unique among 
military camps the world over. Their horses are 
stabled in the trunk of a forest patriarch that has 
been hollowed out by fire; and their tent is pitched 
in the shadow of the sloping bole of a giant tree, 
broken some distance from the ground, and still rest- 
ing upon the stump from which it was severed. To 
particularize the other notable trees in the Grove 
would be wearisome. A few are: "Lincoln," 26 feet 
in diameter; "Washington,'' 29 feet, and "McKinley, 
28 feet. All of these are 300 feet or more in height. 
Susan B. Anthony has a tree named in her honor; as 
also have ex-President Roosevelt, Lafayette, Whittier, 
Longfellow, Emerson, Dewey, and others. 

275 





Cave Reck, Lake Tahoe, California 



LAKE TAHOE 

The most picturesque figure in all American litera- 
ture, a man who knew and loved the West, who had 
come under the spell of western life in his earlier 
years, speaks on this wise regarding Lake Tahoe: 

"A noble sheet of blue water lifted 6,300 feet 
above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of 
snow-clad mountain peaks, that towered aloft full 
3,000 feet higher still — a vast oval eighty or a hundred 
miles around it. . . The forest about us was dense and 
cool, and the sky above us was cloudless and brilliant 
with sunshine, the broad lake glassy and clear; and its 
circling border of mountain domes, clothed with 
forests, scarred with landslides, cloven by canons, and 
valleys, and helmeted with glittering snow, fitly framed 
and finished the noble picture. The view was always 
fascinating, bewitching, entrancing. The eye was 
never tired of gazing, night or day, in calm or storm; 
it suffered but one grief and that was it could not 
look always, but must close sometimes in sleep." 

And years afterwards, when looking out from the 
enchanted grounds of Bellagio over Lake Como, he 
says: "As I go back in spirit and recall that noble 
sea, reposing among the snow peaks 6,000 feet and 
more above the ocean, the conviction comes strong 
upon me again that Como would only seem a bediz- 
ened little courtier in that august presence. Tahoe — 
a sea in the clouds; a sea that has character, and 
asserts it in solemn calms, at times in savage storms; a 
sea whose royal seclusion is guarded by a cordon of 

277 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

sentinel peaks that lift their frosty fronts 9,000 feet 
above the level world; a sea whose every aspect is 
impressive, whose belongings are all beautiful, 
whose lonely majesty types the Deity!" — Mark Twain 
wrote that description many years ago, and it has not 
been improved on — yet. 

The old trail to the lake, devious, tortuous, a 
veritable c Via mala has been lost for ever and the rail- 
road has taken its place. Visitors now leave The 
Overland Route between Ogden and San Francisco 
at Truckee, Nevada, taking thence the narrow gauge 
line of the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation 
Company up the picturesque canon of the Truckee 
River. Truckee is just below the summit of the 
Sierra Nevada Range, 200 miles east of San Francisco 
and 42 miles north of Carson, Nevada. From 
June 1st to October 1st is the best time in the year 
to see this region, for then Tahoe is in her glory, and 
the escape from summer heat to these cool heights is 
delightful. 

From Truckee the line carries one up the canon- 
like valley of the beautiful Truckee River, a distance 
of 15 miles, to the rim of the lake — an interest- 
ing hours journey beside rushing waters. 

TAHOE TAVERN 

The train stops at Tahoe Tavern and breakfast 
follows immediately. The tavern and its new annex 
afford all the comfort and luxuries of a high-class 
resort; rooms and suites of rooms, with bath, steam 

278 



LAKE TAHOE 



heat, hot and cold running water, a new casino, one 
of the best in the West, with broad verandas over- 
looking the lake, bowling alleys, club rooms, ball 
room, billiard room, and museum. Telegraph and 
telephone stations are in the hotel. 

AROUND THE LAKE 

Daily the swift little steamer, Tahoe, carrying 
250 people, and traveling twenty-four miles per 
hour, makes the circuit of the lake, a distance of 
70 miles. Starting from Tahoe City, and leaving 
the Tavern a little later, just after breakfast, the 
seven hours circling of the rim of the cup is begun 
— a journey of many delightful surprises and varied 
with stops at the many lakeside resorts here 
described in order of visitation. Grizzly Bear Peak, 
an immense crag of granite, commands the western 
shore, just after leaving Tahoe City. Beyond is 
Sunnyside (a private resort), and four miles inland, 
half-revealed amid its shelter of pines and firs, at the 
base of a mountain wall, is Idlewild. 

McKINNEY'S 

McKinney's, one of the oldest and most popular 
resorts on the lake, is the first place where line is cast 
ashore. The homelike hotel and cottages will care 
for 125 guests. Books, fishing outfits, the baths, 
music, and dancing are free to the guests. Saddle 
horses and conveyance may be had at reasonable 
prices. An exceedingly well regulated resort, 

279 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

governed by common-sense rules; there is much done 
to entertain guests — campfire gatherings and camp 
dances and the like. Hence are reached Mirror Bay, 
Quail Lake, Iron Springs, and beautiful Rubicon 
Springs. 

MOANA VILLA 

Two hundred yards from McKinneys, Moana 
Villa furnishes like facilities for the comfort and 
pleasure of its guests. 

Then we touch at Rubicon Springs, Rubicon 
Point, Emerald Bay, and Tallac; Bijou and Lakeside 
Park. Tallac is a notable point on the lake journey. 
Commanding the southern end of the lake, and 
situated in a primeval forest of unmarred beauty, the 
hotel and its cottages have been so adapted to their 
environment as to make the place one of easy out- 
door charm. Excursion trips may be made to Mount 
Tallac, with its view of the wilderness and fourteen 
alpine lakes; Freel s Peak, highest in the neighbor- 
hood; such great trout lakes as Fallen Leaf, Granite, 
Cascade, Eagle, Gilmore, Lilly, and Angora; Emerald 
Bay and Rubicon Point; the head waters of the little 
Truckee, Lakeside and Glenbrook, and up to the 
head of the American River, in the valley of straw- 
berries. 

GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 

Glen Alpine Springs, 7 miles south of Tallac, 
possess water of great hydrotherapeutic value, bub- 

280 



LAKE TAHOE 



bling forth amid the wildest and most impressive 
scenery of all this wonderful region. Forty-six lakes, 
alive with fighting trout, all within six miles of the 
hotel here keep anglers busy all the time. Daily 
excursions to Tallac, Ralston, Angora, Pyramid, and 
Richardson's Peaks, Desolation Valley, and any of 
the forty-six lakes, furnish interesting entertainment. 
Glenbrook Inn and Ranch are on the Nevada 
side of Lake Tahoe, where the stage and steamer 
routes meet — an easy, restful, unconventional resort 
much sought after by tourists. Brockways is the last 
stop on the steamer as we head for home and the 
Tahoe Tavern. 




t j. 



Tahoe Tavern, Tahoe, California 



28l 




«B 1 

-Wit' 



PROGRESS OF CITIES 

We were speaking elsewhere of the advancement 
made by towns in the Empire of the West — rapid in 
growth — solidly built — and possessing all the luxuries 
of the older settled parts of the country. Progress, 
achievement, "the best is none too good for us" is the 
formula. The point emphasized is that, in a given 
number of towns having from 10,000 to 20,000 
inhabitants, the Western towns will be found further 
advanced in municipal affairs than the cities of equal 
numbers in the Far East; for culture and an 
appreciation of all the refinements of life are no 
longer held in fee simple by any one section of our 
country. Los Angeles is one of the best musical 
centers to be found in any of the States, and its 
local library stands first in the United States in per 
capita circulation. John Hay once heard a cowboy 
in the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone declaiming a 
a verse of Omar Khayam! And after all where is 
the mystery? We have drawn from your best and 
brightest and they brought with them a rich dower of 
culture, a love of art and science, the scholars tastes 
and all that makes the cultured life. And while we 
do not forget that we belong to a nation of pioneers, 
we do hold, with pardonable pride, that the building 
of this Empire of the West in sixty years is an achieve- 
ment unmatched and unequaled in American his- 
tory. But the fact remains that while the town of 
Pilgrimsport deliberates over the necessity for a new 

283 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 



clock in the town hall, the vigorous future metropolis 
of Hustleville has installed a million-dollar water- 
works plant, built a $200,000 court house, and put 
up three more elevators. It is the dominance of the 
red corpuscle — vital energy, breathed in from clear 
air and sunshine. 

No one is greatly surprised when stupendous 
works are inaugurated and carried to successful com- 
pletion in the great centers of the East. We naturally 
expect to see it in New York, or Boston, or Chicago. 
But skyscrapers, in a Far West town not much over 
thirty years old, are somewhat startling. 

It is a noteworthy commercial fact that Omaha 
bank clearings reached large figures for 1909; but 
it is also significant that the building record for the 
year was over $7,000,000. 

To be sure it can be urged that these statistics are 
interdependent, that one offers the solution for the 
other, but underneath both is one strong note — 
progress. You will find this same ratio all the way 
to the Coast — Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake, and 
all the rest of the growing towns in greater or less 
proportion. The Western man is a good spender, and 
better still, save in rare instances, he is loyal to his 
town. It is not always a question whether the propo- 
sition is a certain sure revenue-maker; he is rich, and 
feels in duty bound to do something creditable. "I 
made my money in Utah," said Sam Newhouse when 
he put up the first tall building in Salt Lake, "and I 
am going to live here and spend it here." And this 
is true in the vast majority of cases. The exodus 

284 



PROGRESS OF CITIES 



from the West to Eastern centers of those who have 
made their fortunes here is not, numerically, propor- 
tionately large. Sometimes one of the unduly rich 
will go into the magnate business in New York, but 
the average Western millionaire holds his claim 
among old friends — too wise to venture his happi- 
ness in the city's awful desert. 

It is the Western habit of "doing things" which is 
always in evidence. A few weeks before the meet- 
ing of a great convention in Kansas City the Audi- 
torium burns; before the ashes are cold the contract 
has been let for a new building, money subscribed, 
—and the new hall finished in time; Seattle burns, 
and is rebuilt, stronger, better, larger — and the same 
with Spokane. The New San Francisco will surpass 
the old. Is there a city of its size in the country 
which would have put up the money for a Natatorium 
like Boise? And it paid to do it, for it was the 
best possible advertisement for the town. 

OMAHA 

Having recourse once more to the overworked 
statistical tables let us glance at a handful of com- 
parative figures. Here is Omaha, a city of 150,000 
people, or 200,000 within a radius of five miles from 
the business center; bank clearings, $735,225,000; 
United States Revenue receipts, $2,600,000; build- 
ing for year, $7,200,000; bank deposits, $60,000,000; 
twelve public parks, nearly 1,000 acres; 150 jobbing 
houses, annual sales, $115,000,000; 300 factories, 
value of products, $192,000,000; largest butter- 

285 




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PROGRESS OF CITIES 



making city in the world, 1 5,000,000 pounds annually; 
grain receipts, 50,000,000 bushels; seventeen eleva- 
tors; third largest packing and live-stock center; largest 
smelting and refining plant in the world in value 
of productions; manufactures 20,000,000 pounds of 
white lead annually; fourteen lines of railroad and 151 
passenger trains daily; real estate transfers, $13,- 
000,000; post-office business, $12,000,000. This 
was the record for 1909. 

KANSAS CITY 

Kansas City belongs to and is classed as a Western 
city, but takes her place as a metropolitan center 
among the great cities of the Union. We deal with 
figures here which seem paradoxical for a town which, 
not so long ago was numbered among the frontier out- 
posts of the desert; bank clearings, $2,395,450,000 
for the year; bank deposits, $126,700,000; real 
estate sales, $52,000,000; building, $13,400,000; 
factory output, $50,000,000 — and other commercial 
figures of similar dimensions. 

TOPEKA 

Now, one is able to account for the tremendous 
vigor of metropolitan Kansas City, but what shall we 
say for the lesser lights out in the State where the 
same aggressive forces are at work. Drop off at 
Topeka, only 67 miles from Kansas City, and, 
one would imagine, completely overshadowed 
by it; besides, whoever heard of a capital city forging 

287 



THE EMPIRE OE THE WEST 

to the front in commercial activity? Here is a 
beautiful city of 50,000 people; eleven colleges; 
thirteen commercial bodies; ten banks; four 
Y. M. C. A. buildings with a total membership of 
3,200; twelve public parks; bank deposits, $10,000,- 
000; public school buildings, $2,000,000; natural 
gas brought in 125 miles by pipe line, 110 miles of 
mains in the city; 147 manufactories employing 5,300 
men, product valued at $14,200,000; the largest 
creamery in the world, whose operating expenses are 
$4,000,000 a year, which pays Kansas' farmers 
$1,500,000 annually, and has 400 receiving stations. 

KANSAS AND NEBRASKA TOWNS 

And Leavenworth, Salina, McPherson, Ellis, 
Lawrence, and many others tell the same story. The 
reason? They are in the midst of the corn and 
wheat-fields of the Great American Desert! The 
same condition will be noted on the Nebraska 
main line of the Union Pacific; towns like Fremont, 
Grand Island, Kearney, and North Platte — active, 
aggressive, growing cities, born and reared in the 
great valley of the Platte, a region which helps to 
feed the world. 

DENVER 

Denver! Here we come face to face with a trans- 
formation scene akin toenchantment. Froma miner's 
cabin to a city of palaces in fifty years! They cele- 
brated their first half century in 1909. Building 
record last year, $1 1,500,000; permanent population, 

288 



PROGRESS OF CITIES 



220,000; 200 trains per day out of the Union Station; 
United States mint, $22,400,000; 100,000 tourist 
visitors for the year; 1,200 factories, and value of 
product $125,000,000; live stock handled, value, 
$24,000,000; post-office business, $12,500,000; 
bank clearings, $470,000,000; bank deposits, 

$75,000,000. 

SALT LAKE CITY 

Salt Lake — another frontier outpost! Building, 
$8,300,000, an increase of $4,000,000 over previous 
year; bank clearings, $350,000,000; claims 100,000 
population; bank deposits, $38,5000,000; value of 
shares sold in mining exchange, $16,500,000; there 
are 16,600 children in the schools and 500 teachers; 
$7,000,000 mining dividends paid during the year; 
$50,000,000 output of factories. 

"Something too much for this" — for even very 
eloquent figures in excess prove dry reading. The 
record of Portland, Spokane, Tacoma, Seattle, San 
Francisco, and Los Angeles, all tell the same story. 

SAN FRANCISCO 

It is impossible to pass San Francisco without 
specific mention; for the figures in connection with 
her restoration are wonderful: Real estate sales 
for the year (1909), $34,000,000; assessed valuation 
in 1905 was $524,239,000; loss by fire in 1906 
was $148,000,000; valuation returned in March 
1909 was $492,330,000. There were 24,718 build- 

289 








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PROGRESS OF CITIES 



ings destroyed by fire and earthquake; up to the 
close of 1909 there had been 24,278 permits granted 
calling for an expenditure of $152,984,000. The 
actual valuation of the city is higher by $2 5,000,000 
than it was in 1905. The building operations for 
1909 amounted to $30,500,000. During the three 
and one-half years since rebuilding began there has 
been expended $165,000,000 in the city, and of this 
sum only $12,000,000 was outside money — the 
citizens and local banks raised the rest; bank clear- 
ings for eleven months of 1909, $1,786,250,000. 

The real Western civic spirit stops at nothing — 
this side of sanity and common sense. H. T. Finck, 
in his paper on the "Progressive Pacific Coast," brings 
out this point very happily. 

"By annexing San Pedro, last August, Los 
Angeles became a seaport town, competing for 
its share of the Oriental and other Pacific Ocean 
trade. The National Government has already spent 
millions on improving this harbor, and a great future 
is predicted. To annex a town and harbor 22 
miles away may seem a daring feat, but it is a mere 
trifle to the project of making California's highest 
snow peak — over two hundred miles away — contrib- 
ute to the welfare and wealth of Los Angeles. A 
few years ago the startling fact was revealed that all 
the available sources of water had been utilized, and 
that this city must be abruptly arrested in its rapid 
growth unless an unlimited supply of pure water 
could be obtained. Such a supply the engineers 
failed to find anywhere nearer than 230 miles, at 

291 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

Owens Lake, which is fed by the glaciers and snow 
fields of Mount Whitney. Here was water enough 
to provide 400,000,000 gallons a day — sufficient for 
a city seven times the present size of Los Angeles, 
but it would cost over $23,000,000 to bring it 
down. The city, by vote of fourteen to one, promptly 
issued bonds to the requisite amount and the 
stupendous project is now being carried out. The 
sum invested is large, but there will be water enough 
to irrigate all of Los Angeles County, and the sale of 
this and of the electric power obtainable will more 
than pay the interest. " 

Here in this "desolate and rock-bound coast 
country' we will pause and rest awhile. From San 
Diego to Skagway this work of empire building is 
going on — ceaseless, resistless. In speaking of this 
great domain, J. E. Defebaugh, editor of the American 
Lumberman, says in a letter to his paper: 

'The Pacific Northwest makes a wonderful 
appeal to every visitor, and as he tarries the appeal 
brings conviction. It is a marvelous country. It is 
a land of living waters, of golden soil, of mineral 
wealth beyond comprehension; of forests which will 
bless mankind when other lands are desolate; a land 
of mountain, plain, and valley; a land where continent 
and ocean embrace each other, and of a people great 
in intellect, energy, endurance, and kindliness. Its 
people! They were chosen by the most rigid proc- 
esses of natural selection from all the conquering 
races that have made America great. There, in that 
golden Northwest, in a climate which, without the 

292 



PROGRESS OF CITIES 



harshness of the North or the enervating softness of 
the South, encourages human effort and assists in 
accomplishment, these people are building an empire. 
They have harnessed the streams for power; they 
have poured them over the plains which they have 
converted into fruitful fields and gardens; they 
are wresting from the earth its mineral wealth; they are 
converting its forests into forms of utility and beauty, 
and at the same time preserving them from destruc- 
tion; they are building schools and colleges and are 
living like princes of the earth. The Bible vision of 
every man dwelling under his own vine and fig tree 
is realized there, where every man may have a snow- 
capped mountain peak in his back yard, and where 
every bodily need and individual want may be grati- 
fied. The natural wealth of that country is great, 
and great are its achievements in every line of 
human effort; but greater and better than all are 
its people themselves — a chosen race, growing not 
only in numbers but in all the accomplishments 
and graces which make a people mutually useful and 
happy." 



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Montgomery Schuyler, in writing of his experi- 
ences on the famous Los Angeles Limited, says: 

"On God's frontiers we seem to be. And it 
seems as it were blasphemous and heaven-defying 
that we should be traversing a forbidden country 
with every circumstance of the luxury of travel 
which can be had anywhere. The Easterner natur- 
ally expects to find in the wilderness some traces of 
the rawness and roughness of pioneering in his rail- 
roading, compared with longer and more thickly- 
settled regions. There are absolutely none. The 
train, of course, is perfectly up-to-date in its appoint- 
ments, indeed, in some respects in advance of date. 
For one thing, it is the most brilliantly-lighted train, 
notably in the dining car and the composite car, but 
in the sleepers also, on which I have ever ridden. 
With the chandeliers overhead and the brackets 
alongside, the incandescent bulbs make our nightly 
dinner a really dazzling scene. And you can read 
or write anywhere. But one looks for a rough road- 
bed, for example, and one finds one as smooth as 
ever cars spun over 'down the ringing grooves of 
change. You can shave, for example, in complete 
security and comfort at fifty miles an hour, and by 
'you' I do not mean the user of a safety razor — that 
'Man with a Hoe' can glean his stubble anywhere — 
but the user of a real razor; 'putting his sickle to the 
perilous grain' with no consciousness of peril.'' 

2 95 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure." The automatic block system is generally con- 
ceded to be the most effective means of preventing 
railroad collisions, and of avoiding derailments in case 
of open switches or broken rails, that has so far been 
devised, and the Union Pacific Railroad furnishes to 
its patrons, absolutely free of charge, the protection 
afforded by this system. 

The principle of the system is simple. The track 
is divided into sections or "blocks a mile or so in 
length, and at each end of every block a signal is 
erected. The most approved form of signal is that 
known as the "Semaphore," and this is the type of 
signal used on the Union Pacific. It consists of a 
post about twenty-five feet in height, with an arm or 
blade near the top, the position of this arm indicating 
to engineers of approaching trains whether or not it 
is safe to proceed through the block. 

If there is a train, an open switch, or a broken rail 
in the block, the arm stands straight out from the post 
horizontally. When the block is clear, and it is safe 
for trains to proceed through it, the arm is pulled 
downward until it stands at an angle of about thirty 
degrees from the post. At night a red light is dis- 
played at the top of the post when the arm is in the 
horizontal or "danger" position, and a green light is 
displayed when the arm is in the inclined or "clear" 
position. 

The operation of the signals used on the Union 
Pacific is entirely automatic. An electric current flow- 
ing through the rails of the track holds the signal in 

296 



SAFETY, SERVICE, SPEED 



the clear position as long as the block is clear. A 
train, open switch, or a broken rail interrupts this 
current, thereby releasing the electric clutch which is 
holding the signal clear, and the arm immediately flies 
to the danger position. When the block is again 
clear, the signal is restored to the clear position by a 
small electric motor. 

It is the unexpected that usually causes an acci- 
dent where the human brain is involved. The written 
and unwritten laws of railroading cover every con- 
tingency which may arise, as far as possible. To 
err is human, however. Train orders are sometimes 
misread or movements contained therein forgotten or 
overlooked. It is invariably the case that the guilty 
crew is cock sure it is in the right, while the one 
having the rights examines its orders with uncertainty. 
The automatic block signals now keep them at a 
respectful distance until this matter is settled. The 
passengers may be utterly oblivious to the fact that 
what is known as a "hazard" has occurred. 

The train dispatchers, under the old system of 
single track, were frequently unfortunate in getting 
"them together." The double order in which 
the same terms were used to each train involved, the 
rules compelling the train dispatcher to send it sim- 
ultaneously to each, completing it only in the order 
of superiority, greatly lessened this responsibility. 
Even then a mistake was not impossible. Now that 
he has the assurance that the block signal will catch 
his error, the brain worry of the train dispatcher is 
relieved and he is in better mental condition to figure 

297 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

out the intricate problems necessary to successfully 
move the trains with minimum delays. It is quite 
noticeable that, under the block system, there are 
fewer mistakes of this character, as well as a greater 
efficiency in moving the trains. 

The Union Pacific operates its trains over Sher- 
man Hill, the highest point on the Overland Route, 
by means of the automatic electric staff, with per- 
missive features, controlled by the automatic electric 
block, a system, as it were, of double protection. In 
this movement trains are as safe from collisions as 
they were at the very inception of the staff in its 
primitive form, attested by the fact that during the 
last year 12,611 trains moved over this piece of 
single track without train orders, and there has been 
no accident of this character in the staff limits since 
its installation some four years ago. 

Railroad mileage in the United States has reached 
the grand total of 227,000 miles, on which there are 
now installed 11,932 miles of automatic electric 
block signals. Of this amount the Harriman Lines 
have to their credit 4,332 miles, or one third of the 
total, and practically all of this system of protection 
west of the Mississippi River. 

The cost of installing is approximately $1,500 per 
mile, with the maintenance cost about $150 a mile, 
annually. The expense formerly incurred by acci- 
dents, which are in this way prevented, by no means 
compensated for the cost and operation of such signals. 
It is in the safeguarding of the traveling public and 
employes, however, that the railroads find sufficient 

2QS 



SAFETY, SERVICE, SPEED 



inducement, and also in the increased volume of busi- 
ness by reason of the feeling of security, which 
makes more people travel. 

The right-of-way for 100 feet on each side of the 
track is fenced in over the entire line, as a protection 
to, and to prevent damage from, stray cattle, etc. All 
ties are constantly renewed and a record is kept in 
Omaha of every tie installed and the length of time 
it lasts. The steady adherence to high standards is 
shown also in the replacing of all lighter structures 
with steel bridging. Nearly 11,000 feet of steel 
bridging has been built to replace wooden bridges, 
In one year this item of expense cost $2,000,000. 
Ninety-pound rails are supplanting eighty-pound 
rails as fast as they can be laid. 




The Los Angeles Limited near Omaha, Nebraska 
y±a. (Note signals are set to protect train as long as it remains in this block.) 



299 




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A CHARMING ILLUSTRATION 

Teachers old in service know how hard it is to 
supply accurate and pleasing illustrations in the elu- 
cidation of a study which will help to fix firmly the 
subject matter in the mind of the pupil. It would 
seem sometimes as if the nature of illustration, simile, 
and the like had been well nigh exhausted, so 
many and varied are the vehicles used. Sometimes 
help comes from an unexpected source, and the very 
latest instance is that of a great railroad joining the 
ranks of actual educators. 

'The Union Pacific Railroad has just published a 
charming little leaflet entitled 'A Presidential Boy of 
Old St. Louis,' and it is a first-class demonstration in 
practical geography. Briefly told, the principal of 
the Eugene Field School, St. Louis, had upwards of 
twenty boys select a railroad, make a thorough inves- 
tigation of the same, and then take a party of friends 
over the system, the self-constituted youthful presi- 
dent acting as guide, philosopher and friend on the 
trip. Young Master Howard Bassett, who had 
chosen the Union Pacific, carried off first honors. 
The quaintly written little book tells of what the 
party did and what they saw and is well worth 
perusal. 

'This kind of practical geography is equal to and, 
for many requirements, better than the much vaunted 
'history from the sources.' A boy or a class of 
children, personally conducted on an extended trip 

301 



THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST 

like the one outlined above, will have received some 
fresh and vital impressions not to be gained from the 
text books. For a great railway, in its promotion of 
the region through which it passes, is cosmopolitan in 
its handling of the subject, manifold in its picturing 
of every department of a State, commercial, agricul- 
tural, industrial, and social. 

'The voluminous literature put forth leaves no 
point untouched, and embraces every item of interest 
from an Indian legend to the number of cattle in 
each country. Now, this kind of information is 
more racy of the soil, as it were, more direct, more 
visibly actual than can be found in the majority of 
text books. But there is no intention of urging the 
substitution of railway literature for the authorized 
editions used now in the public schools. Only this, 
use any illustration which is clean, clear, accurate, 
helpful, no matter where you get it from. If a 
baking powder advertisement is suggestive use it. A 
great railroad, in its work of redeeming from the wil- 
derness, settling, upbuilding, and maintaining new 
villages, towns, cities, and territories, is more vitally 
interested than the compiler of a text book. And it 
is not to be forgotten that we of the West better 
know than any of our Eastern brethren what railroads 
have meant in the progress of our development. 
They have been history makers on a magnificent scale, 
and the record of their achievements will broaden 
the outlook of every student. For we of this vast 
Western region are today the real producers, and it 
is our products which are the mainstay of the coun- 

302 



A CHARMING ILLUSTRATION 

try when it comes to the actual necessities of bread 
and butter and potatoes and beef. In addition to 
the knowledge acquired it is the duty of every boy 
and girl to be thoroughly informed on the products, 
the resources, and the producing power of his imme- 
diate home land. No danger of his becoming insu- 
lar. It's a big world and there's plenty to learn, but 
'know America first.' Colorado School Journal. 




On the Gray's Peak Route in Colorado 
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INFORMATION 



Concerning fares and routes will be furnished gladly by any 
Union Pacific representative specified below: 

ATLANTA, GA.— Candler Building. 121 Peachtree Street— 

A. J. DUTCHER General Agent 

BOSTON, MASS.— 176 Washington Street— 

WILLARD MASSEY New England Fr't and Pass'r Agent 

CHEYENNE, WYO.— Depot— 

E. R. BREISCH Ticket and Freight Agent 

CHICAGO, ILL.. — 120 Jackson Boulevard— 

W. G. NEIMYER General Agent 

CINCINNATI, OHIO— 53 East Fourth Street- 

W. H. CONNOR General Agent 

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA— 522 Broadway— 

J. C. MITCHELL City Ticket Agent 

J. W. MAYN ARD. Transfer Depot Ticket Agent 

DENVER, COLO.— 935-41 Seventeenth Street- 

F.B.CHOATE General Agent 

DES MOINES, IOWA— 310 West Fifth Street— 

J. W. TURTLE Traveling Passenger Agent 

DETROIT, MICH.— 11 Fort Street West— 

J. C. FERGUSON General Agent 

HONG KONG, CHINA— Kings Building— 

General Passenger Agent, San Francisco Overland Route 

HOUSTON, TEX.— 

T J. ANDERSON Gen. Pass'r Agent, G., H. & S. A. R'v 

KANSAS CITY, MO.— 901 Walnut Street— 

H. G. KAILL Ass'tGen. Fr't and Pass'r Agent 

LEAVENWORTH, KAN.--Rooms 9 and 11 Leavenworth National Bank B'ld'g— 

J. J. HARTNETT General Agent 

LINCOLN, NEB.— 1044 O Street- 

E. B. SLOSSON General Agent 

LOS ANGELES, CAL.— 557 South Spring Street— 

H. O. WILSON GeneralAgent 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.— 21 South Third Street- 

H. F.CARTER District Passenger Agent 

NEW ORLEANS, LA.— 227 St. Charles Street— 

J.H.R. PARSONS Gen. Pass'r Agent, M., L. & T. R'y 

NEW YORK CITY— 287 Broadway— 

J. B. DeFRIEST General Eastern Agent 

NORFOLK, NEB.— 414 Norfolk Avenue— 

W. R. PARGETER Commercial Agent 

OAKLAND, CAL.— Corner 13th Street and Broadway— 

H. V. BLASDEL Agent Passenger Department 

OGDEN, UTAH— 2514 Washington Avenue— 

E. A. SHEWE City Passenger and Ticket Agent 

OLYMPIA, WASH.— Percival Dock— 

J. C. PERCIVAL Agent, O. & W. R. R. 

OMAHA, NEB.— 1324 Farnam Street— 

L. BEINDORFF City Passenger and Ticket Agent 

PHILADELPHIA, PA.— 830 Chestnut Street— 

S. C. MILBOURNE General Agent 

PITTSBURGH, PA.— 539 Smithfield Street— 

G. G. HERRING General Agent 

PORTLAND, ORE. — Third and Washington Streets— 

C. W. STINGER City Ticket Agent, O. R. & N. Co. 

PUEBLO, COLO.— 312 North Main Street— 

L- M. TUDOR Commercial Agent 

ST. JOSEPH, MO.— 505 Francis Street— 

C. T. HUMMER Ass't Gen. Pass'r Agent. St. J. & G. I. R'y 

ST. LOUIS, MO.— 903 Olive Street— 

J. G. LOWE General Agent 

SACRAMENTO, CAL.— 1007 Second Street— 

J AMES WARRACK Freight and Passenger Agent 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH— 156 Main Street— 

D. R. GRAY District Freight and Passenger Agent 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.— 42 Powell Street— 

S. F. BOOTH General Agent 

SAN JOSE, CAL.— 19 North First Street— 

F. W. ANGIER Agent Passenger Department 

SEATTLE. WASH.— 608 First Avenue— 

E. E. ELLIS GeneralAgent, O. & W. R. R. 

SPOKANE, WASH.— 603 Sprague Avenue— 

H. C. MUNSON General Agent, O. R. & N. Co. 

SYDNEY", AUSTRALIA— 40 Pitt Street- 

V. A. SPROUL Australian Passenger Agent 

TACOMA, WASH.— Berlin Building- 

ROBERT LEE Agent. O. & W. R. R. 

TORONTO, CANADA— Room 14 Janes Building— 

J. O. GOODSELL Traveling Passenger Agent 

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN— 4 Water Street— 

General Passenger Agent, San Francisco Overland Route 

E. L. LOMAX W. H. MURRAY R. S. RUBLE 

Gen. Pass'r Agent Ass't Gen. Pass'r Agent Ass't Gen. Pass'r Agent 

OMAHA, NEB. 

7-1-10-10M. 



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